Annotated Research Collection:

Counting in the Early Years

Rachel Samuel
CLD 317-Section 041
 Video: Supporting Mathematical Development in Young
Children: Counting
This video focuses on teaching children counting in their early
years. They emphasize on demonstrating counting through daily
routines. When children begin to observe and listen to numbers
being said every time they put a toy back or walk up the stairs, it
builds on their cognition. The video provides suggestions to give
children meaningful opportunities to learn counting.

This is a good resource for educators, teachers, and parents to

watch to enhance their knowledge on the importance of
https://www.youtube.com/watch? teaching math at a young age. When least expected, children are
v=6ppJgu6qaZM&t=140s paying attention to the people around them, especially their
teachers and parents and desire to be like them.
 Activity: Numbers and Counting Activity
This is a good activity to introduce to children when they have
understood the order of numbers. The knowledge required for this
activity would be for children to know the quantities of each numbers
(between 1-10) and the number words. Teachers can use this activity in
the classroom and assign children to work individually to put the
popsicle sticks into the cans or work as a group since everyone is at a
different academic level. Working together will help them problem
solve and work in a team.

This activity gives children the opportunity to group up popsicle sticks

to put into a can with a designated number on it. Children are able to
https://www.learning4kids.n problem solve each time they go through the cans of numbers, they
et/2014/03/23/numbers- have to increase a number each time. This gives children the
counting-activity/ experience of grouping numbers, problem solving if/when working
with a group, and the awareness of mistakes.
 Video: Counting the benefits of teaching math to 3-year-
olds
This Youtube video shows a news anchor speaking about a new
technique to learning math. Math concepts are discussed
throughout the day in meaningful ways to help children better
understand it. Math also helps children with their reading and
literacy and it gives them an opportunity to reason and think.

Importance is given toward the emphasis of teaching math

before kindergarten and the influence it has for future math
learning. Math at a young age creates a basis and stable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= foundation for children as they do math throughout the day at
P5ZLJPpAk8c&t=5s the school talked about in the video. This is also another great
video for teacher, parents, and educators to use to find new
techniques to teaching math.
 Blog: Important Math Skills in Early Childhood
This blog was created by the Blog of Concordia University-Portland.
The basis for the blog was to address that math starts as early as
preschool. Number sense, learning numbers through representation
or pictures, and adding and subtracting are important topics to take
up with children so they start to build their math skills.

The writer suggests that terminologies and concepts should be

addressed when talking about math so children are set with the
right foundation. Through language and practice, children are
slowly able to make sense of the concepts introduced to them. The
https://education.cu-
blog post also provides links to different resources (articles) for
portland.edu/blog/classroom-
Early Childhood Educators to use to help them with teaching
resources/important-math-skills-
techniques.
early-childhood-educators-should-
teach/
 Activity: Number Match
The following activity comes from an activity that was implemented
during placement. This is an excellent strategy to use that allows
children to demonstrate what they have learned through number
sense and identifying quantity.

As the post-it notes are laid out on the table- scrambled. Children will
be given the instruction to group the number with the amount of
symbols they see that is equal to the number. Children will be
encouraged to start off with one and then gradually increasing their
numbers. This activity allows children to recognize the symbols and
Idea taken from previously done
connect it to where and when they will be seeing these things
activity during second year
throughout their day. They will then extend their learning from this
placement.
activity and be able to count the amount of things they see around
them. For example, how many apples are on the fruit tray, how many
candles are on the cake, etc.
 Read a loud: 123 a family counting book
This book is a good method to use in order to introduce numbers and
counting. It takes situations from daily life, games, and family and
brings them together in order to show the progression of numbers. This
video has a person reading out the book as the pages turn, giving the
children visuals and pictures to look at.

As children are read to, literacy is also focused on which enhances their
language and writing. The examples of numbers go till 20, introducing
numbers higher than 10. Throughout the read-a-loud, children are able
https://www.youtube.com/w to count the number of things addressed in each picture to connect it to
atch?v=xvfpNCtPDcU the number they see. This book also explores poetry through each line.
Couplets are spoken to catch the children's attention and attracts them
to the story as it sometimes might feel like a song.
 Sing Along: The Big Numbers Song
Songs have a tendency to stick in our heads. Even when we were
young, if our parents would play a track or song over and over again, it
was common to see us singing along to it after a few listens. Similarly,
children often learn better when there is a rhythm to an amount of
words. Songs like five little monkeys, twinkle twinkle little star, rolly
polly are all good examples of catchy songs all used for a purpose.

There are a variety of number songs that children may know. However,
https://www.youtube.com/watch this song covers numbers 1-100. Often when educators and teachers
?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y first begin to teach the numbers, they tend to stick to numbers 1-10 till
the children understand the weight of each of the numbers. Children
have the advantage of looking at the numbers in their numerical and
words forms while listening or singing along to the song.
 Ted Talk: Simple preschool games boost math scores
This Ted Talk spoken by Charles Bleiker addresses a new
curriculum. Number Ways has 15 games that's taught for 15
minutes over the period of several months. The number concepts
taught through this curriculum include, number naming, number
writing, number equating, and number sequence.

Speaks about at-risk children. Unfortunately, math is one of the

culprits for school dropouts and failures. Math does not cause a
problem during high school, it starts at preschool. The curriculum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
has been tested on high poverty children to help them develop
YpmEyVby-KU
their math skills by doing basic tasks while having hidden math
elements to it. The speaker provide good suggestions on what
educators can do to make math interesting for young children.
 Website: ABCya!
Websites are unique ways to educate and indulge a child in math.
Since technology is used at a young age at school and children become
familiar with it while at home, bringing technology into the classroom
or giving the children at opportunity to use the online websites during
computer time will support their learning.

This website can be used by parents, teachers, and educators to allow

children to extend their learning into an online game. The website
provides games from preschool to grade 5 in different subject areas.
https://www.abcya.com/games/kin Math is not the only subject that the website provides games for, they
dergarten_counting have language, holiday themed games, games that focus on a skill, and
games that require children to create strategies in order to succeed in
the game.
 Website: Splash Math
Splash Math focuses on math throughout the entire website. It is
another resource for parents to use while teaching their children math
at home, or when teachers want children to apply what they learn to a
game. The website also provides a curriculum page which helps
teachers and parents to look at what concepts must be taught at each
age so they do not miss anything.

The website comes with options to help the person assessing it to

https://www.splashmath.com/c narrow down what their focus is for the children. The options consider
ounting-games kindergarten to grade 5 and cover different mathematical concepts.
Children are able to choose the game of their choice and work on as
many games as they desire within the time frame they are given. It is
important for teachers and parents to have an eye on children when
they are on a computer, for the reason to observe whether the child is
understanding the concepts.
References
ABCya!. (2019). Pre-K: Counting. Retrieved from https://www.abcya.com/games/kindergarten_counting

Bates, A. (2012). Important Math Skills in Early Childhood. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://education.cu-
portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/important-math-skills-early-childhood-educators-should-teach/

Davis, J. (2015, November 23). Numbers & Counting Activity. Retrieved from
https://www.learning4kids.net/2014/03/23/numbers-counting-activity/.

EalryChildhoodVideos. (2016, May). Supporting Mathematical Development in Young Children: Counting.

[Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ppJgu6qaZM&t=166s

KidsTV123. (2011, May). The Big Numbers Song. [Youtube]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y
References Cont’d
KIMME. (2014, November). 1 2 3 a family counting book. [Youtube]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvfpNCtPDcU

PBS NewsHour. (2016, September). Counting the benefits of teaching math to 3-year-olds. [Youtube].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZLJPpAk8c&t=244s

Splash Math. (2019). Counting Games for Kindergarteners. Retrieved from

https://www.splashmath.com/counting-games-for-kindergarteners

TEDx Talks. (2014, December). Simple preschool games boost math scores | Charles Bleiker | TEDxFIU.
[Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpmEyVby-KU