Counting Teaching Resources
Teach counting skills this school year with printable worksheets, educational games, digital activities and more primary school resources designed to help students when they are learning to count.
This extensive collection of teaching resources aligned to the Australian curriculum includes maths mentals, MAB flashcards and more to save primary teachers time on lesson planning. Created by expert teachers, each resource in this maths collection has been carefully reviewed and curated by our team. That means it's ready to use in the classroom! You'll even find editable resources, plus differentiated options.
New to teaching counting, or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teaching team!
What Is Counting?
It may seem obvious, but let's start at the beginning.
The basic counting process involves a one-to-one correspondence between the items in the set and the counting numbers. It's a fundamental mathematical concept taught in the early years that helps our students develop number sense and mathematical skills.
In the early years, students typically learn to:
- Recite the numbers in sequence
- Count objects by pointing to them and saying the corresponding number
- Recognise and write numerals
- Count forward and backward
- Skip count by twos, fives and tens
- Use counting strategies to solve simple addition and subtraction problems
Counting Vocabulary Terms
Let's dive into some of the common maths vocabulary terms related to counting that students encounter in primary school.
Numerals
Numerals is another word for the symbols that represent numbers, such as 1, 2 and 3.
Digits
Digits are the individual symbols that are used to make up numerals. For example, let's look at the numeral 12. The digits 1 and 2 make up the numeral 12.
Skip Counting
One of the early skills students learn in counting is the process of skip counting, in which they literally skip over numbers. A precursor to traditional addition, skip counting involves counting by a specific number sequence, such as 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.
For example, when skip counting by 2s, a student would start at 2, counting out 4, 6, 8, 10, and so on.
Counting On
Counting on is a simple strategy for performing addition. Using this strategy, students start with a smaller number and count up by the number being added to find a sum.
For example, if a student faces the addition problem 3 + 4, they would start with the number 3 and count on 4 more: 4, 5, 6, 7. In this case, the answer is 7.
Counting Back
The opposite of counting on is counting back. This strategy for solving subtraction problems involves starting with a larger number and counting down by the number being subtracted to find a difference.
As an example, a student who wants to solve the subtraction problem 5 - 3 could count backward from the larger number to find the solution. In this case, the larger number is 5. The student would start with 5, counting back 3 — 4, 3, 2. The answer is 2.
Tally Marks
Tally marks are a great tool for teaching early counting skills. When teaching counting with tally marks, you ask your students to draw a certain number of tally marks to represent a given quantity.
For example, if a student is going to count to four using tally marks, they would draw a single vertical line and then draw three more lines next to it.
Tally marks are typically drawn in groups of five, so if a student were asked to then count to five using tally marks, they would draw a diagonal line crossing through the four vertical lines to represent all five.
Understanding how to create sets of five tally marks can help students count to larger numbers easily. For example, if a student is asked to count to 15, they would create three sets of five tally marks.
Grouping
The term grouping has a number of definitions, depending on how it's being used. But when it comes to counting, grouping refers to a method of organising objects into groups of equal size to facilitate counting.
Sets of tally marks are a perfect example of grouping — they're a visual representation of grouping numbers into sets of five.
How to Teach Counting
Are you looking for some fun ways to teach counting in your early years classroom? The more hands-on and active, the better!
In addition to the worksheets, games and other activities in this collection, try some of these fun ideas from our teacher team!
- Use Snacktivities — Maths manipulatives help young kinesthetic learners understand counting by making the concepts more concrete, and using snacks adds a real-world element to the lesson! Challenge students to string snacks like cereal loops for practice with grouping or simply to count out exact numbers of gummy bears. Just make sure no one samples the manipulatives!
- Get Arty — Incorporating art into counting activities adds an element of fun. For example, ask kids to draw a certain number of circles, squares or other shapes and then count them out loud. This also helps students work fine muscles and develops their understanding of basic shapes.
- Play Store — Even before students learn about currency, kids enjoy the role-play of 'shopping' like adults. Use this to your advantage by setting up a classroom 'store' and asking children to count out the correct amount of play money to purchase items.
- Get Active — Encourage movement and help students get their wiggles out while learning. Ask children to count out loud while jumping or hopping, or play a game of Simon Says that involves specific numbers of a specific movement.
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Numbers and Words to 20 – Worksheet Pack
Use this set of worksheets when students are practising connecting numbers to words and quantities.
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Ten Frames - Printable
Use this ten frame printable in various daily maths lessons.
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Counting Collections to 20 Worksheet
A place value worksheet for students to use when counting small collections.
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Roll, Count, and Cover - Dot Day Activities
Build fine motor skills and counting skills with a set of printable Roll, Count, and Colour Dot Day Activities.
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Ten Frame Mats (Single and Double)
A ten frame mat and a double ten frame mat to use in a variety of ways.
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Counting Collections and Connecting Numbers PowerPoint
A 16 page editable PowerPoint presentation to use as part of a numeracy lesson when teaching place value to younger students.
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Jellyfish - Count to 10 Match-Up Activity
Use this fun teaching resource to help consolidate your students’ knowledge of subitising to 10.
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Search and Find Bowerbird Worksheets
Explore images to find and count objects for a bowerbirds nest and bowerbirds themselves.
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How Many Eyes? - Alien Counting Worksheet
An alien themed place value worksheet for students to use when counting small collections.
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Hands and Numbers 1-10 Counting Activity Template
Teach counting from 1 to 10 and one-to-one correspondence with a creative (and free) printable activity.
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Guided Maths Groups – National Numeracy Learning Progression – Task Cards
A set of 32 task cards with activities for tracking student progress along the numeracy learning progression.
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Colour Counting Worksheet
A worksheet to consolidate the concept of numbers and associated values.
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Guided Maths Groups – National Numeracy Learning Progression – Student Tracker
An individual student tracker for sub-elements of the National Numeracy Learning Progression.
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Fractions Number Line - Thirds, Sixths and Twelfths
Demonstrate the concept of thirds, sixths, and twelfths on a number line with a printable number line display and student reference sheets.
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Halloween Counting to 10 Worksheets
Count, write, and match numbers and objects with printable Halloween counting worksheets.
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Numbers to 30 - Printable Tens Frames
Use a printable ten frame when working on counting, addition and subtraction, odd and even numbers, or place value.
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Counting and Colouring Basketball I Spy Worksheet
Have a bit of counting and colouring fun with a basketball worksheet for Prep.
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Which Is More? Card Game
A set of cards for students to practise comparing and ordering collections to 20.
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Search and Find – Year 1 Halloween Maths Worksheet
Get your students counting up to Halloween with this fun search and find maths worksheet.
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Rounding Using a Vertical Number Line Posters
Display how to round numbers to different places using a vertical number line with a set of posters.
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Digital Pixel Art - Adding and Subtracting Integers
Practise adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers with an exciting spreadsheet pixel art activity.
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Counting 1-20 Matching Game for Foundation and Grade One
Use this matching game in your early years classroom to teach students to count quantities and match them to numbers (1-20).
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10 More, 10 Less Differentiated Mazes
Delight your students with this maze challenge, to practise calculating 10 more or 10 less than a value within 120.
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Pirates on a Number Line - Number Location Interactive Activity
Practice locating numbers on a number line with a Google Slides interactive number line activity.
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Numbers to 99 - Number Line Matching Activity
Practice locating numbers on a number line with a fun matching activity.
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Subitising Game - Slap It!
Help students strengthen subitsing skills with this multiplayer maths card game!
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Bug Number Matching Game
A bug number matching game using numbers 1-10.
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Ten in the Bed - Counting Activity
A fun hands-on 'Ten in the Bed' number rhyme activity to help students sequence numbers and count backwards from 10.
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Counting Crocodiles - Numbers 1 to 10 Worksheet
A crocodile themed place value worksheet to use when identifying and counting numbers from 1 to 10.
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Numbers 1 To 1000
Numbers 1 to 1000 displayed on a set of bright and colourful posters.
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Subitising Dice - Numbers 1 to 9
Subitising is the process of immediately recognising how many items are in a small group.
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Counting to 20 Activity
Use this number activity to consolidate your students’ knowledge of numbers 1-20.