What is a number?

In Reception this term the children have begun to investigate what numbers are. The children began by looking at different representations of the numbers 1 to 5. They looked at dice, dominos, numicon, 5 frames, bead strings and towers… just to name a few! After looking at the different ways the numbers 1 to 5 can be made the children explored making their own representations of these numbers. It was great to see the children thinking of their own ways they could represent these numbers, for example, some children noticed that a square had 4 corners whereas a triangle only had 3. It was great to see the children using different materials to make their representations! The children have also been learning new language related to number. It has been fantastic to hear the children comparing the numbers they have learnt about by using the language of more and less. Some of the children decided to make ‘stairs’ with blocks and explored adding 1 more to their number each time. They had a great understanding of how numbers got larger by adding 1 more and numbers became smaller when taking one away. Well done Reception, keep it up!