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.

A second grader has a partial understanding of counting in equal groups, but is still working on rational counting. Focus on the Child videos are taken from one-on-one interviews with individual children. The interviews are designed to elicit evidence of children’s mathematical thinking. They are not teaching episodes or formal assessments.

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

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

A child orally counts to 100.

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

A child counts on to find the total number of cubes as the set increases.

This second grader has uncertainty about the meaning of the digits. He is working to construct the understanding that place determines the value of a number.

A kindergartner demonstrates how high he can count.

A child counts forwards and backwards using a number line with hidden digits.

Jennifer McCray, director of Erikson’s Early Math Collaborative, addresses some myths about early math. Counting is, in fact, complicated!

A child counts as high as he can.

Jennifer McCray, director of Erikson’s Early Math Collaborative, continues her talk on some of the most common misconceptions about early math education.

Jennifer McCray, director of Erikson’s Early Math Collaborative, continues her talk on some of the major misunderstandings about what goes into teaching mathematics to young students. In this section, she focuses on how children gradually develop their understanding of number and quantity.