- Count everything together. One by one.
- Frequently ask 'how many are there?' about everything.
- Pooh's Number Match Flash Cards, and Eric Carle Number Flash Cards.
- Make the association between a number as a symbol, and the number of items it represents.
- Understand that numbers can be represented by both a word and a symbol.
- BabySmash for a fun 'pop up' number guessing activity.
- Reinforce numbers everywhere:
- Point out that numbers are on the pages of their books when reading together.
- 'Calculator fun!': show that numbers (as symbols) are used in everyday things. Count up from one together, pressing each representative button while saying the number out loud.
- Counting to 100:
- Counting to 10 is the first big step, but as they get more comfortable with continuing to count upward – introduce a fun activity book like Count & Find 100 Frogs and 10 Flies. This makes counting just a byproduct of the fun of finding all the frogs and flies in on each page.
- Decimals:
- Talk about how numbers are grouped by 10s, and then ask 'Why? Is it because we have 10 toes and 10 fingers?' (then count to 20 on their toes and fingers).
- Reinforce with counting by 10s with the Abacus (see Math).
- Reinforce with dimes: introduce the dollar as a whole unit made up of 10 dimes, and then break the dime down as a unit of 10 pennies. Then mention that the dollar is a collection of 100 pennies.
- Radix: introduce them to the fact numbers don't just have to count up to 10 to be useful. They can count to less than 10–like 2 (binary) or 8 (octal), or more than 10–like 16 (hexadecimal). Mention that counting in 10s is useful to people, but counting in these other ways can be useful to computers, robots, and other machines that people use to do amazing things.