Activities related to counting books can spark a lot of conversation and creativity. These English and Spanish-language activity cards are great for printing and using at home and school.

Children love to count. Counting helps them make sense of the world and to find out how many of something. With time and practice, children develop an understanding of the “rules” or principles of counting.

Traditions around food and feasts provide rich opportunities to connect math at school with children’s experiences at home. From Diwali to Thanksgiving, fall is a season of special meals with loved ones.

Children need experiences and practice counting in different, flexible ways while learning the rules of counting. These books and the right questions can help.

In Count Me In! by Cynthia Weill we follow a procession of Mexican folk culture while exploring counting and math concepts.

Students roll a die and mimic animal movements to connect counting words, visual number arrangements, and actions.

A student determines how many blocks there are.

A child determines a given quantity of blocks and then finds the new amount as blocks are added to the set.

A child uses cubes to aid in addition and subtraction.

All kinds of confusion can result when children are asked to rattle off the numbers from 1 to 10 or 20 or higher without actually counting something. In our learning labs and activities we are working to help teachers find ways to avoid “Naked Numbers

After reading Anno’s Counting Book, Nancy Beza at Waters Elementary encouraged her preschoolers to make a list of objects that could be found in a winter scene—snowflakes, trees, etc. Each student created an object from the list to display on a bulletin board.

Daniela Giralt at Gunsaulus Elementary, a 2010-11 Early Math participant, used the book Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd to help her preschoolers explore the Big Ideas of counting. First in the whole group, children added dots to a large dog as Ms. Giralt read the story. During the reading, she stopped to ask, “How many stains do you see now? How many stains do you think there will be if we add one more? How many stains are left after the dog takes a bath?