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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Chook, Chook, Chook, Chook - Number Rhyme and Worksheet
A 1 - 10 number rhyme and accompanying worksheet.
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Number Talks - Target Number Task Cards
Build number sense skills with this set of 20 task cards.
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Sorcerer Supplies – Numbers 1 to 100 Chart
Sorcerer Supplies themed hundreds board.
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Numbers 1–10 Dominoes
A set of dominoes to consolidate students’ understanding of number from 1–10.
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100th Day Snack Template
A template for students to use to count out 100 snack items!
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Number Talks - How Many Task Cards
Build number sense skills with this set of 24 task cards.
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Ordinal Numbers Poster
A poster for ordinal numbers 1st - 50th, plus 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th and 100th.
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Crayons - Numbers 1 to 100 Chart
A crayons themed hundreds board.
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Numeracy Songs - "Five Currant Buns" Poster
A poster to use in conjunction with numeracy songs.
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Ordinal and Cardinal Number Posters
Posters connecting ordinal and cardinal numbers from 1-10.
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Emoji - Numbers 1 to 100 Chart
An emoji themed hundreds board.
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Counting to Twenty Poster - BW
A poster showing numbers and words from one to twenty.
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Lush Leaves Blue - Numbers 1 to 100 Chart
A lush tropical leaves themed hundreds board.
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Friends of 30 Dominoes
A set of dominoes to use in the classroom when matching friends of 30.
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Number Matching Puzzle - Division
A hands-on game to play when learning about dividing numbers.
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Number Matching Puzzle - Addition
A hands-on game to play when learning about adding numbers.
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Learn and Play Spots - Simple Addition and Subtraction
Carpet rings perfect for velcro carpet dots, focusing on simple addition and subtraction of numbers.
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Interactive Hundreds Chart
An interactive hundreds chart with multiple colour options, automated skip-counting and more!
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Identifying Numbers
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify the numbers from 0 to 10.
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Let's Count!
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify and order numbers from 0 to 100.
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Connecting Numbers
A 60 minute lesson in which students will connect numbers by their name, numeral and quantity.
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Representing Numbers - Assessment
Use these resources and more to asses your students' progress in this unit.
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Practising Subitising
A 60 minute lesson in which students will quickly identify a small collection of objects with the use of subitising.
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Subitising Small Collections
A 60 minute lesson in which students will use subitising to count small collections.
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Counting Collections
A 60 minute lesson in which students will count small collections to identify 'how many'.
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Surrounded by Numbers
A 45 minute lesson in which students will identify numbers in their environment.
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Fun Ways to Learn with LEGO in the Classroom
From learning sentence structure to coding activities, using Lego for learning in the classroom is a no brainer.
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32 Awesome Hundreds Board Mystery Picture Task Cards!
This downloadable hundreds chart mystery picture resource contains 32 different pictures in task card format so you can use them with any hundreds board!
- Number Sense Games
- Number Sense Worksheets
- Number Sense Posters
- Number Sense Templates
- Number Sense for Preschool/Kindergarten
- Number Sense for Foundation Year
- Number Sense for Year 1
- Number Sense for Year 2
- Number Sense for Year 3
- Number Sense for Year 4
- Number Sense for Year 5
- Number Sense for Year 6