Games for Early Number Sense

Games for Early Number Sense, A Yearlong Resource by Catherine Twomey Fosnot and Antonia Cameron is a collection of games to help children develop number sense and a valuable resource for primary teachers. I've already used the first game, Bear Tracks in class today and then used it as my family math game for the week. Bear Tracks helps young children think about the number as a quantity, the cardinal number. I have used games in my classroom since I began teaching and believe they are beneficial. I found myself reflecting and having some new learning while reading the overview for this book.

-Games are more than a tool to practice skills. If designed carefully they can be open-ended providing opportunities for strategies and rich conversations.

-"...young children often have little understanding of the role of chance in games and they experience losing as a personal failure. "

-"when competition is replaced with collaboration, the result is often an increase in conversation on the math involved."

-Sharing, after playing a game can be as simple as, "What did you notice?" and often leads to inquiries with important math ideas emerging.

-Allow different strategies.

I've learned I like to collect professional books and I know I enjoy reading them. However, lately with number of books I have been purchasing I'm trying to use something from them right away and with this book I did just that. This will become one of my favorites this year for kindergarten and I think one that easily extends to second and maybe third grade.