INTERVENTION STRATEGY:
Activities to Increase Pre-Number Skills
Brief Description: These strategies are a series of activities for developing pre-number skills including:one-to-one correspondence skills, which are a necessary prerequisite for counting objects; classification skills, necessary for grouping; and seriation skills, which help children understand concepts of quantity. These are very beginning activities to develop number sense. These activities should be used in hierarchical progression until solid skills are developed in each area. They may be varied and grouped throughout an intervention period to keep interest up. These strategies are adapted from the book Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning and Behavior Problems by Vaughn and Bos (2009).
Materials Needed: These vary by activity and are specified with each below, as are different variations to each activity.
Implementation: These strategies may be implemented individually or in small groups by a teacher, paraprofessional or adult volunteer.
One-to-one Correspondence
  1. Matching Blocks- Using common objects such as toy cars, blocks, bears, etc., give the student a specified number of items (e.g. 3). Point to the objects and say, “You have three bears.” Ask the student to place one unifix cube next to each of the objects. Through language, make what they are doing overt. Say, “See, you have a bear here and you placed one cube next to it. Now you have a second bear here, and you put a cube next to it. And see, you have third bear here and you put a cube next to it.” Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
  2. Counting Practice- The children are given some type of manipulative such as unifix cubes or counting bears. The children are instructed to move a manipulative for each number called. You may use a sheet of paper with a box or a cup on it. The students are instructed to place a manipulative in the box or cup each time a number is called. The teacher then gives feedback on the correct number. This may be varied by using bingo markers on white paper or wet sponges on colored paper to tally the numbers. A string of beads may also be made for each child where the child moves the beads from one end of the string to the other, much like an abacus. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
  3. Number Cards- The children are given some type of manipulative such as unifix cubes, counting bears, beads,etc. and a set of cards with numbers that they recognize on them. The student is then asked to put the correct number of objects on each number card. This may also be reversed by making sets of objects and having the student place the correct number cards with each set. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
Classification
  1. Sorting- The children are given a bunch of objects, manipulatives or pictures. They are then asked tosort the objects into different categories, given a rule. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
  2. Guess What Sort! -The children are given a bunch of objects, manipulatives or pictures. They are then asked to sort the objects into different categories based on a rule or property. The other students in the group then try to guess the rule or property that qualifies the articles for the group. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
Seriation Activities
  1. Seriation by Length-Give the students varied lengths of string. Ask each student to sort his or her individual group of strings by length. Then the group may put all of the strings together and sort all of them. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
  2. Seriation by Size- Give the students objects of various sizes. Ask each student to sort his or her individual group of objects by size. Then the group may put all of the objects together and sort all of them by size. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.
  3. Other Types of Seriation- This may be accomplished using a number of different objects such as jars with various amounts of sand, etc. in them. The procedure would be similar to the above. Modeling, feedback and instruction should be provided as necessary.

Intervention Schedule: These should be done for brief periods (approximately 10-15 minutes) daily. Progress monitoring should focus on counting skills.
Variation: n/a
Research Summary & References:
These strategies emphasize increasing prenumber skills as an essential skill outlined by the research of the National Math Panel.
Vaughn, S. R. & Bos, C.S. (2009) Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning and Behavior Problems. Allyn & Bacon, Boston: MA.
Tool/Attachments:
The file entitled “Picture Cards” in the TOOLS folder on this site contains reproducible pictures that can be printed onto card stock and cut out for the sorting activities.
Number flashcards can be found at this web site: