As children learn to count, their thinking changes in a way that shapes their understandings of number. Counting is not simply reciting number words in a sequence. There must be items to count; and there must be a procedure to make each utterance of a number word/numeral correspond with one of the items to be counted. Counting can be a fun task for young children. Children will begin by counting forward and should be provided a lot of experience practicing this new skill. They will also begin to recognize written number symbols in their environment.

As teachers and parents other that providing physical things for children to count you could also read number books with children. When doing so you should be intentional about pointing out numbers on the page and saying, That is the number three, and count the objects in the book as well as count on your fingers one, two and three. Or say, Can you find the number three? and see if your child can locate it on the page. This resource links story books and mathematical understandings. A link to the read aloud is given below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urwqFtoR6Xo

Skills You Gain From Count- Denise Fleming

Skill 1 : exploring the number strand through stories