Numbers

You know, numbers are magic.

Humans use them all the time to talk about the way they see the world around them.

They do that with words as well, but numbers work in a different way.

A word can have all sorts of different meanings, but a number will always mean the same thing.

People around the world speak different languages, and use different names for the numbers,

and sometimes they write out the numbers in different ways,

but once you know the words they use and the way that they that they write their numbers down, you know you are talking about the same things,

and you can use them in the same way.

Numbers are fixed.

We all use them in the same way.

If a person in Scotland counts three of something, so will someone from Asia or Africa.

And numbers don't describe the actual things that they talk about.

You can have three apples, or three oranges, or three bananas.

They are different things, but the same number of each thing.

Numbers are the answer to the question “How many?”, not the question “What are they?”.

And numbers can be put together to end up as different numbers.

If you put one of something with another two of something you end up with three of that thing.

And if you put two of something with three of something you end up with five of something, whatever the thing is.

When we put things together like that we say that we add them together,

one of a number of words we use for the different things we do with numbers.

Because we can also work with numbers when they are not dealing with any things at all.

We can add them together, and take them away from each other, and do other things with them.

And to write these things down we use special signs, so we don't have to mix up words with the numbers to explain what we are doing with them.

What do numbers look like?

Collecting Organising Displaying

Understanding?

Playing with numbers,

measuring things making patterns,

using money telling the time

2d shapes & 3d objects,

Position & Movement