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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Search and Find Bowerbird Worksheets
Explore images to find and count objects for a bowerbirds nest and bowerbirds themselves.
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Jellyfish Count to 10 Match-Up Craft
Use this fun teaching resource to help consolidate your students’ knowledge of subitising to 10.
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Numbers 1-10 Bug Matching Game
Help students learn to represent numbers 1-10 in picture, word and number form.
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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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Ice Cream Counting Game
Help students practise their knowledge of counting numbers 1-20 with this fun ice cream matching game.
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Busy Binder - Morning Work Pages for Kindergarten
Review daily calendar, maths, literacy, and fine motor skills with a printable morning work pages for kindergarten!
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Christmas Maths Puzzle - Counting to 10
Count groups up to 10 with a printable Christmas maths puzzle.
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Remembrance Day Count and Graph Worksheet
Practise counting and graphing with a Remembrance Day Maths worksheet.
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Remembrance Day Activity - Counting Peg Cards
Practise counting sets of objects with a group of 15 printable Remembrance Day peg cards.
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Comparing Numbers - Halloween Maths Worksheets
Comparing numbers just got a little creepier with exciting Halloween-themed kindergarten maths worksheet.
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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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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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Firefighter Colour By Number Worksheet - Hundreds Chart
Print the perfect maths activity to accompany your fire safety lessons with a printable firefighter colour-by-number worksheet
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Halloween Number-Word Matching Worksheet
Match numbers and number words with a pack of Halloween printable maths worksheets for year 1.
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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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Halloween Tracing Numbers Worksheets
Trace and write numbers to twenty with a set of spooky Halloween tracing numbers worksheets.
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Digital Halloween Maths Activity
Save time writing your October maths lesson plans with a digital Halloween math activity for foundation year students.
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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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Crazy Creatures – Counting Worksheet
Bring a bit of (not-so) spooky counting into year 1 with a crazy creatures Halloween activity.
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Autumn Counting to 10 Clip Cards
Practice counting objects with 18 autumn-themed counting to ten clip cards.
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Comparing Numbers-Halloween Word Problems
Practise comparing numbers using MAB blocks with a Halloween Maths word problem worksheet.
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Using Greater Than - Less Than Symbols - Halloween Worksheet
Practise using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols to compare two-digit numbers with a fun Halloween worksheet.
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Halloween Comparing Numbers Worksheet
Have a spooktacular time practising number comparisons with a count and compare Halloween maths worksheet.
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Halloween Comparing Numbers Worksheet - Ten Frames
Model and compare numbers to twenty using ten frames with a fun and engaging Halloween maths worksheet.
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Numbers About Me Worksheet
Let your students introduce themselves in numbers with this fun 'Numbers About Me' back-to-school template.
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Even and Odd Numbers Task Cards - Word Problems
Identify odd and even numbers within word problems with a set of task cards.
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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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Search and Find – Back to School
Start the school year with a fun Search and Find maths activity for Year 1 students.
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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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Bar Model Poster Pack
Help your students solve problems using the four operations with a pack of printable strip diagram anchor charts.
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Colourful Tens Frames
Print a colourful set of tens frames to enhance your small group maths lessons.
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Number Talk Task Cards - Ten Frames
Build number sense skills with this set of 30 ten and double ten frame maths talk task cards.
- Number Sense Worksheets
- Number Sense Games
- Number Sense Posters
- 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
- Number Sense for Year 7