When teachers use the Developing Number Concepts curriculum and Assessing Math Concepts assessments in their classrooms they have the tools they need to help their students learn to value mathematics, become confident in their mathematical ability, become a mathematical problem solver and learn to communicate and reason mathematically (NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards).

Book 1

Counting, Comparing and Pattern

Chapter 1: Beginning Number Concepts
Through activities in this chapter, children develop an understanding of the beginning number concepts, including meaningful and purposeful counting. The activities help children develop a sense of conservation of number and sense of quantity and number relationships while they also develop a facility with counting.

Chapter 2: Pattern
The activities in this chapter are designed to help children develop a basic understanding of pattern concepts through a variety of ongoing experiences. Children will work with increasingly complex patterns as they make sense of pattern concepts in their own way and in their own time. They will be presented with a great variety of patterns, including patterns of rhythm, color, and arrangement. The emphasis in this chapter is on repeating patterns, but children should also explore growing patterns and number patterns.

Chapter 3: The Concepts of More and Less
The activities in this chapter help children develop an understanding of the concepts of more and less, focusing on the relationships between given quantities. Children work with these concepts at various levels, depending on their understanding. Children's early experiences focus on determining whether one quantity is more or less than another. Later, children move on to determining how many more or how many less one number is than another. The goal is for children to internalize the relationships among numbers to 10 (and later to 20) so that they "know" them without having to figure them out.

Book 2

Addition and Subtraction

Chapter 1: Interpreting and Symbolizing Addition and Subtraction
The activities in this chapter introduce the processes of addition and subtraction through story problems that the children act out. Because children need to learn to distinguish between the two processes, both addition and subtraction stories are included from the start in random order.

Chapter 2: Internalizing Number Combinations to 10
The activities in this chapter offer many opportunities for children to work with the number combinations to ten and to record those combinations with symbols.

Chapter 3: Developing Strategies for Adding and Subtracting
In this chapter the activities provide opportunities to apply a variety of addition and subtraction strategies. The children will be learning strategies, not through specific activities designed to develop each one but in the context of their actual problem-solving experiences. It is important that the children see the strategies as useful tools, rather than as ways they've been told to work. The independent activities are designed to give children practice adding and subtracting using a variety of strategies. The first set of activities focuses on developing strategies for numbers to ten. When children are able to work with ease with numbers to ten, they should with the activities using numbers to 20.

Book 3

Place Value, Multiplication and Division

Chapter 1: Place Value
The activities in this chapter help children develop an understanding of place value concepts including forming and counting groups, recognizing patterns in the number system, organizing groups into tens and ones, and adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. The chapter is organized into three sections. Each section deals with important concepts that children must understand if they are to make sense of our number system and learn to add and subtract large numbers in a meaningful way. In each section, teachers will introduce the concept to the children through teacher-directed whole-class activities. The will provide follow-up in the form of independent activities that give children the opportunity to consider and apply these ideas for themselves.

Chapter 2: Beginning Multiplication
The activities in this chapter help children develop an understanding of beginning multiplication as they learn to recognize the process and the language of multiplication. Through the teacher-directed activities, you can help children interpret the language of multiplication, act out multiplication situations, and record the multiplication experiences. The independent activities provide children with the ongoing practice they need to become comfortable interpreting multiplication situations and solving multiplication problems.

Chapter 3: Beginning Division
Through the activities in this chapter, children develop an understanding of beginning division in ways that help them recognize the process and learn the language of division. The teacher-directed activities give children opportunities to interpret this language, act out division situations, and record their division experiences. The independent activities provide children with the ongoing practice they need in order to become comfortable interpreting division and solving division problems.

Planning Guide

Developing Number Concepts Planning Guide

This planning guide accompanies the three-book series. This planning guide includes year-long plans for teaching kindergarten through third grade as well as notes to the teacher of multi-age classes. This guide is not designed to tell classroom teachers what to teach one day at a time. Rather, it is intended to help the classroom teacher present sets of related activities, each for a period of four to eight weeks. Focusing on a particular concept for several weeks helps children to fully develop their understanding of that concept and to gain competence and facility with the mathematics they are learning. This planning guide is designed to make sure all children are given the time they need to work with particular concepts and to experience these concepts in ways that will help them make connections and see relationships. The underlying structure of the "math-time" routine, as described in this guide, gives teachers a practical, reasonable way to respond to children individually as the children work to make sense of the math they are doing.