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Concept Journey

Counting Journey: Number Words, Numerals and Amounts

Early Level

Count, touch, say and show numbers in different ways.

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Step 1 of 8

See the Amount

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Your task

Today we are using five to learn how counting works.

Good noticing. The group has five counters.

What do you notice?

Five is our example today. The same idea works for other amounts too.

For the teacher or grown-up

This journey works best with a teacher or grown-up. Read the prompts together, talk about the pictures, and let the child point, say, build or show their thinking.

Teacher and parent: why this journey matters

This journey moves from explore, notice and talk into building, representing, reasoning and checking. It supports CfE learning now while preparing for the refreshed curriculum direction.

  • Concept focus: number words, numerals and quantities
  • Understand: counting tells how many
  • Know: spoken number names and written numerals
  • Do: count, match, compare and represent small amounts
  • Represent: objects, dots, tally marks and numerals
  • Reason: explain how you know two amounts match
Teacher notes and planning metadata

Big Idea

Numbers tell us how many there are.

Know

  • number words can be said in order
  • numerals can represent amounts
  • each object should be counted once

Understand

  • the last number said tells us the total amount
  • the same amount can be shown with objects, dots, fingers, tallies, words or numerals
  • groups can look different and still show the same amount

Do

  • count a small set carefully
  • match a numeral to an amount
  • show the same number in more than one way
  • explain how they know how many there are

Representations

real objects, counters, dots, fingers, ten frame, tally marks, numerals, number words, number line

Misconceptions

  • Objects should be counted once, not missed or counted twice.
  • The last number said tells how many there are.
  • Spread-out objects can show the same amount as close-together objects.
  • A numeral is a symbol for an amount, not a thing to count as another object.

Progression

Noticing small amounts in play, songs, fingers and everyday objects.

Comparing, joining and splitting numbers with part-whole understanding.

Curriculum links

  • Built around Big Ideas, progression and connected understanding.
  • Early Level language stays concrete: objects, fingers, dots, tallies, words and numerals before abstract notation.
  • Use touch-counting, moving counters, ten frames and number cards.
  • Evidence of understanding: pupils can show the same number in more than one way and say how they know.