Can you help me help DD to learn numbers 11-20?

[AwfulMaureen]

She's 5 in year one and has just been placed on an IEP. As far as I can see, the IEP is mainly for numeric work as her teacher told me her reading has really come on a lot since she got glasses last term and they're quite happy with her progress.

But they're not happy that she can't recognise all numbers from 11 to 20 and want her to be able to.

Last night I wrote them all out and stuck them on the mirror and she now confidently knows 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19. But is a bit hit and miss with 13, 15, 12 and 20.

It's obviously because she can't say "Five-teen" and "Three-Teen" etc.

how can I help her? I've tried giving the numbers "characters" as she's very imaginative and visual but it's not really helped....maybe I need to do some in colour? All I've done at the moment is put a face on the zero of the 20...any tips please?

I am glad they're helping her...I fell behind very quickly in maths as a child and by age 10 I was having panic attacks about it. I think she's inherited my blind spot about it....I remain positive and encouraging to her though and don't show my own fears. Unfortunately I had a teacher who called me stupid all the time and he ruined my chances of gaining any confidence later on in high school with maths.

no sorry that was poorly written by me.
I mean number recognition was probably more of a focus in reception, and she missed it.

Really I should have pointed out that my maths is dreadful. My learning stopped at multiplication....and "place value" means nothing to me...I don't know what it is.

I would have had help if I were in school today...as it was I didn't and just suffered.

I agree...she was very busy socialising in reception she LOVED school and still does...seems to enjoy it all...so I hope this will all keep her on track and she will keep on loving it.

Oh and ReallyTired can I ask, did your son easily recognise and order numbers at this age?

place value is very easy.

It means that 13 is made up of one group of ten and then 3 odd ones left over.

So 54 is 5 groups of ten and 4 odd ones left over.

It is easy to explain to kids with things like egg boxes and packets. So I have 1 packet (of 10 sweets) and 3 loose ones. But place value is a bot hard for year one, so don't worry about that yet.

If you want to help her with numbers, the easiest is to talk numbers.
dd - can you put out 6 glasses please. There are 8 of us, how many more do I need?
dd - Can you put the blocks away? Shall we count how many and see how far we can get?

All very simple, add on a few take off a few, how many more do I need to make 8 (or 10, or 6) if you feel more comfortable, keep the numbers low, the practising will still help.

"Oh and ReallyTired can I ask, did your son easily recognise and order numbers at this age?"

Yes, he could. He could recongise any number up to one hundred. However it was memorisation rather than true understanding. He was less good at writing numbers and would sometimes get confused between "15" and "51"

Once a child has grasped that "15" is 1 lot of ten and 5 lots of ones and that "51" is five lots of ten and one one then they stop getting their numbers around the wrong way.

"place value is very easy."

Once someone has grasp the concept of place value they fail to see the difficulty. Many children will understand that our number system is based on the number 10 without being explicitly taught. However understanding that 100 is ten times the amount of 10 is not obvious to many young children.

Piaget has a theory of development where children go through four stages of development. Young children are very literal thinkers and find hard to relate abstract swiggles to real life.

I meant it was easy for the op to get her head around or to learn, as an adult.

Most kids don't get it until year 2 or 3. (post 7, when abstract thought kicks in according to Piaget )

Kids need to do as much maths as possible with actual things in their hands, numbers on a page are a very hard concept actually. So always use real objects to count

The place value doesn't need to be abstract at this stage though. Which is why I think it is important to count the objects as a whole group and then group them together and see them in that set or in the ten frame/egg box with one object in each space and some ones left out side it. They also need to understand that the 10 is ten ones. You wouldn't at this stage ask them to look at the number 12 and say how many 10s and 1s are in it. That would be too abstract.

Thank you all so much I feel like I am learning the basics too! So right now I should keep concentrating on helping her to count a lot of "things" and also to keep practicing recognition....she's done very well over the last two evenings...she's loved doing games with me and now has securely grasped 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19/...I left 20 out for yesterday as she was getting it mixed up with 12!

But I am happy with the progress....and so is she...once I know that she can easily recognise them all then I will play ordering games with her...I've ordered some number beads and strings...nice and big ones...so she can thread them in the right order. I'll also make some games up...then it will be onto 20's!

Sounds like she's doing really well. You can put sets of objects in order as well as the numerals. This will help her see the relationship between each number.

Not sure whether this will be of help. It's the new curriculum materials for New York State. It's loosely based on Singapore maths that reallytired was talking about earlier in the thread. Module 5 is the one that deals with numbers 11-19 and early place value. Ignore the scripting bit. It's not supposed to be a scripted program, just an example of what teaching might look like.

I'd also leave out the 'Say Ten' counting in your case, since she already knows and recognises the numbers. It might give you some ideas about activities to do with her though. It will also rely on her knowing the content from nodules 1-4.

Ah that's a good idea Rafa...could you explain a bit more about sets of objects in order? What sort of objects? I'll check your link now thanks!

"Ah that's a good idea Rafa...could you explain a bit more about sets of objects in order? What sort of objects? I'll check your link now thanks!"

I used lego for this. Use some lego of the same colour to make several tower of ten bricks. Get your child to add a brick of a different colour to make a eleven, then twelve, thirteen and so on. After this exercise get some squared paper and get your child to draw columns for each number and colour them in.)

ReallyTired thanks...But that's not in order is it? I thought Rafa meant taking 1 object and placing it beside 2 objects..and then 3...and so on....or am I mixed up about this?

You have had lots of good ideas, but I will add my contribution in a moment. But another activity might be 'washing line', where you peg up number cards in order; cards could have the numeral on one side, and corresponding number of dots (or whatever) on the other.

QUOTE:

Practical things are best for grasping number concepts - bricks, Lego, beads, counters, money, shapes, weights, measuring, cooking.

Do adding, taking away, multiplication (repeated addition), division (sharing), using REAL OBJECTS as just 'numbers' can be too abstract for some children.

Number Bonds of Ten forms the basis of much maths work, so try to learn them. Using Lego or something similar, use a LOT of bricks (of just TWO colours, if you have enough) lay them out so the pattern can be seen of one colour INCREASING while the other colour DECREASES. Lay them down, or build up like steps.

So:

ten of one colour none of other
nine of one colour one of other
eight of one colour two of other
seven of one colour three of other

etc, etc

then of course, the sides are equal at 5 and 5; after which the colours 'swap over' as to increasing/decreasing.

To learn TABLES, do them in groups that have a relationship, thus:

x2, x4, x8

x3, x6, x12

5 and 10 are easy

7 and 9 are rather harder.

Starting with TWO times TABLE, I always say: "Imagine the class is lining up in pairs; each child will have a partner, if there is an EVEN number in the class. If one child is left without a partner, then the number is ODD, because an odd one is left out."

Use Lego bricks again, lay them out in a column of 2 wide to learn 2x table. Go half way down the column, and move half the bricks up, so that now the column is 4 bricks wide. That gives the start of 4x table.

Then do similar things with 3x and 6x.

With 5x, try and count in 'fives', and notice the relationship with 'ten' - they will alternate, ending in 5 then 10.

It is important to try and UNDERSTAND the relationships between numbers, and not just learn them 'by rote'.

I am sorry it seems complicated trying to explain these concepts, but using Lego or counters should make understanding easier.

An inexpensive solar powered calculator (no battery to run out!) can help learn tables by 'repeated addition'. So: enter 2+2 and press = to give 4. KEEP PRESSING = and it should add on 2 each time, giving 2 times table.

There are good web sites, which can be fun to use :

www.ictgames.com/

www.resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html

UNQUOTE

OP, your DD seems to be progressing faster than you feared she might!

The English language doesn't make it easy for little children. For example, the word 'twelve' doesn't give you much of a clue - might as well call the number 'Fred'. Things would be more transparent if it was called onety-two or ten-two (as it is in some languages).

The familiar old counting to 10 on fingers (and borrowing other people's fingers for counting further on) is a good concrete way of getting a feel for the fact we use a base 10 counting system.

Many thanks Ferguson and Out I love Mumsnet. Wherever there is a hole in anyone's knowledge, it can be filled here. It really is a brilliant place...the amount of people willing to share what they know is amazing.

It's helping me so much and DDs teacher told me that she's made great progress with number recognition today so...

My daughter likes games like grandmother's footsteps, making up rhymes to nursery tunes etc. Sometimes if you can incorporate these type of games into getting her to repeat the numbers it can become fun rather than tiresome.

For example, we do spellings to grandmothers footsteps so she turns round and I stand back. I move forward with each letter she gets right and move backwards with the ones that are incorrect. When the word is finished I chase her round the room and tickle her when I catch her. Not sure she even realises that it is work then.

Definitely help my DD. Might be worth a try…..

Another great Maths app is Squeebles. My DS loves this and it helped him with maths practise.

Just to add board games like snakes and ladders and anything involving numbers/counting without them realising is great. Make number cookies/ out of play dough. Also look out for house numbers when you walk along the street (especially good for odd and even teaching) can they tell you the number go to house number 13 etc make sure it is fun and engaging :-)

I like this site ICT games