Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources number system ideas?

While little Miss' school report was fabulous, some of her maths work samples indicated that she might not quite have the whole number system worked out. I'm looking for ideas, activities and inspiration for things we can do during the holidays to boost her understanding of the number system. Any ideas?

At what grade level is she working?

She's in a pre-primary/Grade 1 class - aged 4...

What do you mean "the whole number systems thing"?

Sorry to be dense, but I'm not sure I understand what's giving her trouble and I'd like to help if I can.

Is it "number sense?" Here is an explanation.

http://www.teacherlink.org/content/math/interactive/probability/numbersense/numbersense/home.html

Hmmmmm... more about place value and really familiarising herself with the number line. She's actually OK with mental maths (simple addition and subtraction) but doesn't skip count very well (teacher would like to see skip counting in 2s, 5s, 10s starting at different points on the number line). That sort of thing... If I ask her "what's 2 numbers come after 35?", she can tell me the answer but is less able to do so when it's written. Moving toward writing algorithms seems to be a big leap. That kinda stuff???

With both my girls (now 4 and 6) I purchased a number chart poster is was about 48"x48" both of them liked to visualized numbers count them out first by one's then by 10's, 5's then later by 2's after that they didn't need the chart for the other numbers. Also on the back it has a couple of activities, they loved to do the prime numbers one the best, there is also a small chart 5x11 on the back I copied that so they could do the prime #'s over and over as many times as they wanted.

You may want to look at Singapore Math. They seem to cover that around the end of 1A. Also DD4 likes this Froggy game that may help with the number line:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/test.shtml

How about math manipulatives? We have a place value kit which I sometimes use with DS4.

For skip counting, I'd recommend the "Schoolhouse Rock" songs/videos from the 1970s/80s.