Last Updated on October 10, 2023 by Editorial Team
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Number sense means the flexibility and lucidity of a child in understanding numbers. Knowing what numbers mean, their value and the relationship between them is important for children so that they can apply them in real life. The number sense improves the children’s ability to identify, compare, and do operations on numbers. Taking the example from real life, we can infer that the sense of counting currency bills and computing change in value after addition or subtraction emerges from the math intelligence that the number sense offers.
Identifying or spotting the number sense can be done by:
- Checking the ability to understand number symbols, meaning, and vocabulary
- Assessment of systematic counting
- Assessing competence in mathematical operations
- Checking the ability to understand bigger and smaller numbers, and so on.
However, these abilities are not so strongly developed in children with learning difficulties. They need support for building number sense. Many board games, assistive tools, and manipulatives are available for this purpose. Apart from these, it is the number sense books that are proving to be very effective in sharpening the numerical assessment abilities of a child.
How do number sense books help in developing numeric intelligence in a child?
Number sense books offer readymade support to the teachers as these help them learn strategies to strike up a conversation about numbers with the kids. The books can provide support for learning the math activities like counting and operations; even before that, this helps build a sense of friendship with numbers while eliminating the math’s scare from the minds of early learners.
We have compiled for you some of the best number sense books for beginners in number literacy. These books can incite curiosity among the children about numbers and mathematic operations, engaging them in a better and more participative way.
Books on building number sense
1. Number Sense and Nonsense: Games and Puzzles
This book is a rich resource for building number confidence. The writer of this book, Claudia Zaslavsky, has curated about 80+ puzzles, activities, games, and problems to help children go beyond the simple memorization of rules.
It forays into the application part and builds mathematical abilities through good practice on a variety of math topics. By the way of allowing the manipulation of odd and even, prime and composite numbers, factors, multiples cracking and so on, the students can enrich their math skills with ease using this book.
2. Ten Apples Up on Top!
Ten Apples Up on Top! is a hilarious introduction to the concept of counting. Dr. Seuss, the noted author of books for kids has done a magnificent job of making counting a fun activity for kids through this book.
With the help of fun-filled activities and illustrations, the concept of counting reaches the kids’ minds and stays there too! They do not mind practicing often, which is essential for the development of the concept of counting. This book can be used as a playtime activity, too, and is making homeschooling easier and more fun for parents.
3. Nimble with Numbers
Nimble with Numbers is an interesting number sense book that builds math confidence in children by promoting better participation. This book is an ideal resource for removing math scare from children’s minds.
It inculcates mastery in basic math computations and further teaches well about decimals and fractions. Thus, this book can make students algebra-ready. Answer keys and teaching tips are other value-added features of this book.
4. Big Brain Teasers Book for Kids
This book is designed for kids 9-12 years of age. Crammed with brainteasers, it allows for building critical analysis skills, and problem-solving skills, apart from improving memory retention of math concepts and number knowledge.
With loads of cryptograms, hidden pictures, logic grid puzzles, and so on, this book offers an easy pastime to make space for more math in a day’s time. It offers a good break from the screens of mobile phones and engages the children in mind-stimulating, fun math activities.
5. Number Sense: Simple effective number sense experiences
The book is designed for primary school to middle graders. It gives wholesome support for promoting thinking about and understanding the numbers and related operations.
It covers mental computation, relative size, number relations, multiple representations, reasonableness, and so on. The book comprises ten-minute activities that encourage dialog between the student and the teacher. It drives thinking students about numbers in a meaningful direction and helps lay a strong foundation for mathematical smartness.
6. Everything Kids Math Puzzles Book
The book is an exhaustive collection of games, brainteasers, and activities aimed at building math literacy in children. The children will be able to learn Roman numerals with the help of decoding messages, grasp calculations by connecting dots, enhance division by solving riddles, and improve number literacy by doing activities like matching the profession with number license plates. The book puts the fun in the process of learning numbers and math skills and induces informal learning.
7. Ten Black Dots
This book is a fun introduction to basic math skills. By actually making some imaginary figures using different numbers of dots, the kids get to learn the difference between the numbers and their values.
They are able to identify the numbers by learning in a playful way. Children can develop visual learning abilities in addition to improving their number counting skills with the help of lots of activities provided in this book.
8. Books about Skip Counting
Skip counting is a kindergarten class concept that helps build the foundation for multiplication in the later stages. This method needs a lot of practice, which one can easily get from this book. It features the problems based on the four most used skip counters 2s,3s,5s, and 10s.
Children get to learn the concept through pictorial illustrations available in the book. It can help learn skip counting to 100. The book is available in e-book format and has a text-to-speech feature that swells kids with the notion of learning like a big boy!
9. 12 Ways to Get to 11
The book comprises 12 witty double spreads that help young learners internalize the concept of counting by the way of gamification. This counting supporting book offers different ways to reach the number 11 helping students grasp the idea of dodging numbers, adding numbers, learning missing number concepts, etc.
The book has a high engagement quotient making it easier for the teachers to keep the excitement of doing something interesting alive in kids; as a result, they love practicing with it more and more. The book is designed for pre-primary and primary level students and works as an interesting homeschooling resource too.
10. Quack and Count
This book is a colorful illustration of adventure that happens on a day of a family of lively duckling family. The kids can slip, slide, dive, and leap the way these ducklings do and learn the concept of counting, adding, and dodging numbers in the process. By the way of grouping themselves in various combinations, the ducklings teach kids the art of reaching the number 7. Kids can master the concept of addition in a playful manner and would love to practice it every day as a game activity.
How do the number sense books help in developing routines?
Routines for number sense are small activities that build number readiness in children. With the help of books, teachers can achieve the objectives of number sense routines, which are:
- Allowing experimenting with basic math concepts
- Reinforcement and enrichment of elementary math skills
- Internalization of mathematic operations like addition, multiplication, etc.
- Warming up the students to do more math with intelligence and interest
So, empower yourself with number sense books and give the much-needed support to the early number learners in building number and math literacy. With these books, kids are sure to fall in love with math, without any fuss!
Conclusion
Developing number sense is an essential life skill that is above being merely a preliminary mathematical pursuit for children. It is an important aspect of navigating our surroundings and making sense of this chaotic world. These carefully picked books will thus be your confidante and trustworthy partner in your journey, as they enrich you with their years of experience and positive feedback to help you glide through the smoothest path to your destination.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,