Daily Number Sense Activities

Start each math lesson with a 10-15 minute activity that promotes number sense.  Below are a few ideas.

Number of the Day:   This is a great activity to do every other day or a couple of times a week.   To save paper the number of the day mat could be put in a SmartPal but occasionally you might want to have students actually fill out a number of the day mat to turn in.   The number of the day could be any number, just make sure the magnitude of the number is appropriate for your students.   Numbers do not have to go in consecutive order from day to day but they could if you are using this as part of calendar time and want the number of the day to match the days date.   One day the number of the day might be 14 or 148 and the next day it might be 24 or 2,458.  Below are some examples.

Click here to download a number of different Number of the Day Templates.

Climb the Ladder:  This is a type of Number of the Day Template.   Click here to read more about how to use the Climb the Ladder Template.


Guess My Number:   Stop and Go on a Hundreds Chart -  Give each student their own personal Hundreds Chart and/or use a large teacher Hundreds Chart or this fun electronic Hundreds Chart called Splat.   Students can use a red and yellow counter or a red and a green counting cube, anything to indicate stop and go.  Call on a student to make a guess.   If the guess is to high, cover the number with a red marker which means STOP - do not go any higher.   If the number is too low, cover the number with a green marker which means GO - my number is higher.  Keep asking students to guess, moving the red or the green marker to the new guess depending on whether or not it is to high or too low.  Stop occasionally and ask students if they can make a statement using the words between, greater than, more than, less than, fewer than  etc.   Click here to download a printable Hundreds Chart.


Guess my Secret Number on a Number Line:  Write a secret number on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope.   Tell students that they are to try to guess your number.   Use a 3 digit or a 4 digit number depending on the audience.  If you chose a 4 digit number, draw a number line on the board and mark one end with 0 and the other with 10,000.   Tell students that your number is between these 2 numbers.   Tell them that they can not guess the number but need to ask yes and no questions to help eliminate numbers that do not work.  For example, a student might ask "Is your number greater than 5,000?"   This is a great first guess since it is right in the middle and would eliminate half of the possible answers.  Student should keep asking yes and no questions using correct mathematical vocabulary until they have found the secret number.  Every 2 or 3 guesses, you might draw a new number line with the new constraints.   For example, if student have discovered that the secret number is greater than 5,000 but less than 8,000. draw a new number line (the same length as the original) that begins and ends with these numbers.