First-graders Practice Number Sense
On the 43rd day of school, which fell in mid-October, first-grade teacher Jennifer Egan asked her students to write “43” on a whiteboard anyway they could think of. Some students made tally marks, others drew 43 circles, and still others wrote math problems, such as “40+3.” The lesson helps students build their number sense, which grows by connecting numbers to students’ experiences. “Number sense is an important foundational skill for primary learners,” Egan said. “Students are demonstrating their understanding of how to represent numbers by using tally marks, tens and ones, and addition/subtraction. We then focus on how numbers are all around us and how we use them in our everyday lives at home, work, and play.”