3 Simple Ways to Target Number Sense During Morning Meeting

Developing number sense is an important building block for more complex math skills. Without strong number sense, students will likely struggle with higher level math. The key areas of number sense include:

• counting
• arithmetic operations 
• number knowledge

It's obviously important to work on number sense during math groups/ lessons, but I think it's helpful to also embed number sense activities across the day! Check out 3 simple ways we target number sense activities during morning meeting:

1) Days in School/ 100 Days of School Charts:

Counting & tracking the number of days in school is such an easy way to work on number sense. Each day during morning meeting, we count how many days we were in school the previous day, then practice adding one and counting the new amount. When using days in school charts, you can target so many skills including:

• Counting with base ten and identifying place value pieces (hundreds, tens, ones)
• Adding one more
• Counting by 100s, 10s and 5s
• Counting on (after counting by 100s, 10s or 5s)
• Identifying numbers in variety of forms

You can grab my days in school charts in my calendar pack here (it's also included in my morning meeting mega pack, so don't double purchase!)
You can also find tons of free days in school charts on TpT here!

2) Number of the Day/ Number of the Week:

Having a number of the day or number of the week is another simple way to target number sense and number fluency. We do a number of the week (instead of number of the day). Each day during morning meeting we practice showing the number of the week in a different way (counting it, drawing it, tallying it, writing it, adding one/ finding one more, subtracting one/ finding one less, etc.). When doing a number of the day/ week activity, you can target so many skills; just a few include:

• Identifying numbers in a variety of forms (standard form, place value, expanded form, bas ten blocks, written, tallies, etc.)
• Counting by 10s and 5s
• Counting on (after counting by 5s or 10s)
• Adding or subtracting

You can grab my number of the week mini-posters in my calendar pack here (it's also included in my morning meeting mega pack, so don't double purchase!)
You can also find tons of free number of the day activities on TpT here!


3) Calendar Math:

There are SO many possibilities for using a calendar to work on number sense. I like to change the calendar cards I use to target different skills; I have calendar cards with numbers, words, and tallies to work on different skills!  A few number sense tasks to do with a calendar include:

• Practicing with patterns on the calendar (counting by 5s, 7s, 10s, etc.)
• Practice counting on/ adding the days until upcoming events/ dates
• Sequencing numbers 

You can grab my calendar cards and materials in my calendar pack here (it's also included in my morning meeting mega pack, so don't double purchase!)

Share your ideas for targeting number fluency throughout the day in the comments!