Counting for Early Learners: 3 Strategies That Makes Counting Work

The session, Math Early Learning Continuum Session 2: Counting for Early Learners: 3 Strategies That Makes Counting Work, was presented online on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.  This online session was presented by Heather Wark (Lakehead University), Jenn Gardiner RECE, Mary Lynn Anderson and Ben Hazzard (LKDSB).

The continua referenced are based on the work by Dr. Alex Lawson, Lakehead University

Children should learn their number facts. However, they would benefit from learning these facts by using an increasingly sophisticated series of strategies rather than by jumping directly to memorization.

- (Lawson, 2016, p. 4)

Strategies help students find an answer even if they forget what was memorized. Discussing math fact strategies focuses attention on number sense, operations, patterns, properties, and other critical number concepts.
- (O’Connell & SanGiovanni, 2011, p. 5)