Number Sense Teaching Resources
Browse printable number sense worksheets, hands-on maths activities and more teacher resources created by teachers for teachers like you!
These resources are aligned with the Australian Maths Curriculum, and each was created by teachers with teachers — and students — in mind to help build foundational maths skills in ways that engage and excite students about numbers!
Want to learn more about number sense? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a definition of number sense, how to assess this important maths skill and more!
What Is Number Sense?
In the most basic sense (no pun intended), number sense refers to a student's intuitive understanding of numbers and their relationships. It includes the ability to estimate and compare quantities, understand numerical patterns and relationships and make reasonable judgments about the accuracy of calculations.
When students show an understanding of numbers, their size, relationships,and how they are affected by the four mathematical operations, what they're really showing is their number sense.
In an educational setting, building number sense is closely related to other foundational skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and logical reasoning. As our students get older, it will become a crucial skill for daily life they will use to manage finances, calculate time and make decisions based on numerical information.
Teach Starter Teacher Tip: Although the names may seem interchangeable, it's worth noting that number sense is not the same as mathematical fluency or memorisation of algorithms, but rather a deep understanding of the underlying concepts and relationships between numbers.
When Does Number Sense Develop?
There is no single year level when we're teaching students number sense — instead, it continues to develop and become more sophisticated as students progress through primary school.
Research suggests that babies as young as 6 months old can distinguish between small and large numbers of objects, and by prep, students are already working on number sense as they begin to learn counting and one-to-one correspondence. At this level, they're also beginning to develop an understanding of quantity and relative size — both key to overall number sense.
Number sense will continue to grow in primary school as students become more adept at recognising and using numbers to solve problems, and it continues into high school and — for many students — into university.
Assessing Number Sense
When we assess students for their number sense skills, there are certain mathematical concepts that they should have under their belts. These include:
- Ability to Recognise Missing Numbers in a Pattern —When kids can fill in missing numbers in a sequence, they're showing that they can make connections between numbers and develop an understanding of the relationships between them.
- Ability to Use Maths Mentals — Students with number sense can use maths mentals to solve problems involving the four basic operations.
- Ability to Engage in Systematic Counting — Children who can count systematically can more easily understand the relationships between numbers, including number magnitude, patterns and sequences.
- Ability to Subitise Numbers — Students can use visual clustering skills to instantly recognise how many objects are in a group without physically counting them.
- Ability to Relate Numbers to Real-World Problems —For example, a student may understand that '3' means 'three objects' or 'three days' or 'three dollars.'
- Ability to Compose and Decompose Numbers — Students use number sense when they break down numbers and put them back together. For example, a student who can break down the number 10 into 8 and 2, then add the two back together to again make 10, is using number sense.
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Subitising Activity — Clip Cards (Numbers 1 - 10)
Share this subitising activity with your students to give them hands-on practise subitising to 10.
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Subitising to 10 Worksheet
Practise subitising to 10 with your students using this printable worksheet set.
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Number Word Search Puzzles
Assign these number word search puzzles to your students to give them practise identifying the word form of the numbers 0 through 20.
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Number Recognition 0-5 Colour-by-Number Pack
Practise number recognition with this colour-by-number activity pack! Students colour varied representations of the numbers 0-5 to solidify their understanding.
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Firetruck Colour By Number Worksheet
Build number identification skills with a printable Firetruck Colour by Number Worksheet.
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Counting 1-20 Worksheet Pack
Practise counting to 20 with this set of worksheets ready to go!
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Counting 1-10 Count and Colour Worksheet Pack
Practise counting to 10 with this set of worksheets ready to go!
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Jellyfish Count to 10 Match-Up Craft
Use this fun teaching resource to help consolidate your students’ knowledge of counting to 10.
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Subitise This! – Lesson Warm-up
Use this subtising presentation as a quick warm-up before your lessons.
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Number Talks - Number Sense Task Cards
Build number sense skills with this set of 24 task cards.
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Ordinals Worksheet Pack
Support early maths instruction with this ordinals worksheet pack, designed to help students confidently identify, read and use ordinal numbers.
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Counting 1-20 Number Game
Practise counting from 1-20 with this fun alien-themed counting game.
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I Can Count To Ten – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Use this set of counting worksheets to help your students sequence numbers from 0 to 10.
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Counting Crowns Numbers 1-10
Create number crowns when learning to count to ten with this set of crown templates.
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Counting Up to 20 Zoo Animals Worksheet Pack
Count the different animal groups on this set of three worksheets perfect for practising fundamental counting skills.
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Halloween Maths Worksheets - Spooky Ten Frames
Model numbers to twenty using ten frames with a spooky Halloween maths worksheet for year 1.
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One More, One Less - Worksheet
Practise foundational addition and subtraction facts using the concepts of one more and one less.
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Positive and Negative Numbers – Board Game
Practise identifying opposite integers, plotting positive and negative numbers and solving word problems with this board game.
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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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Counting Objects Bear Hunt – Numbers 1–10
Use one-to-one correspondence and basic counting skills with this hands-on game.
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Christmas Colour By Number - Hundreds Chart Mystery Pictures Activity
Print the perfect maths activity for Christmas: a set of 12 Christmas-inspired mystery hundreds charts.
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Numbers 1 - 20 Representation Matching Cards
Practise representing the numbers 1 - 20 with your students using these matching cards that enable them to engage with numbers in six different formats.
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Colour Counting Worksheet
A worksheet to consolidate the concept of numbers and associated values.
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Double Plus 1 – Game Boards
30 game boards to use when working with near doubles.
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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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Subitising Mazes (Numbers 1 - 10)
Solve our subitising mazes to have fun practising subitising quantities up to 10!
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Subitising Dots Worksheets
Utilise these Subitising Dots Worksheets to help your students learn many ways to subitise to 10.
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Number Recognition Worksheet Pack
Use this collection of number recognition worksheets to help your students practise recognising the numbers 0 through 20 in many forms.
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Recognising Numbers 0 — 20 BINGO Game
Help your students identify numbers 0 - 20 with this printable Bingo game!
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Using Tape Diagrams to Find the Whole From a Percentage – Worksheet
Calculate the whole from a percentage using tape diagrams with this worksheet.
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Bunny Subtraction Mini Book
Learn about subtraction with this cute bunny-themed subtraction story!
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Ice Cream Addition Activity
A cute ice cream-themed addition activity.