One of the things I have noticed over the last few years working with my boys on both
phonics and math is that
number words are hard!

It goes a little like this:
Me: This is the word “ONE”.
Child: But shouldn’t it start with a “W”?
Yes, that would make more sense, but it starts with a “O”. This is the word “TWO”.
Why is the “W” there? Can’t we just use that “W” in “One”?
I give up! It doesn’t make sense and don’t even get me started on the spelling of “FOUR”!
This year I again have a Kindergartner, so I decided to add a daily activity to our Math Meeting to overcome the
number word challenge.
Teaching Children Numbers
- I started by creating a word document with large type with numbers listed on the left and then with the same size font spelled out the number words.
- Then I printed them out and pasted the numbers onto left-over scrapbook paper and cut the number words into slips of paper.
- I then laminated both the number board and the number word cards.
- Then Velcro was attached to the back of the word cards.

If I had to do it over again, I would not laminate it because then the Velcro doesn’t stick well and we ended up using the sticky portion of the Velcro, not the Velcro-y portion which just seems like a waste of perfectly good Velcro.
I love that Rhett(5) can do this activity by himself. He works on it for awhile and may have a question or two, but likes to figure it out on his own. This is a big step since he hasn’t gotten the hang of sounding words out yet so he is using a mixture of first letter sounds and sight word recognition.
.
We’ll get there. One day, till then, we are enjoying out
homemade DIY learning resources.
It’s always entertaining to see it from the perspective of a child! This is a great tip I may have to try! Visiting from TT&J.
Now, why didn’t I think of that. Happy Homescholling!
LOL, so many words in the English language that just don’t make much sense when they’re spelled! Great idea.
Great activity! I agree that learning number words are difficult. 🙂
I love this idea! I found you over on the Mommy Club blog hop and I am glad I did! Your blog is great!
As a newer blogger it is always fun to come accross great sites like yours. 🙂
This is a great idea and you could even make it into Bingo – words on bingo card and numbers pulled out of a jar. Have a look at my alphabet bingo
http://pretendandmove.blogspot.com/2011/09/power-of-playing-let-games-begin-wk2.html
Wow – this is great. As a math mom (and math publisher/blogger) with a 2 year old, I’m really focused on counting. I even had Husband sing the 1-2-3 song to the a-b-c tune and I made a video of it: http://mathfour.com/sets-and-counting/the-1-2-3-song
I’ll be linking back here, for sure!
Thanks, Holly!
How fun! Like the Idea of laminating the numbers! Have to make a laminated number chart for my daughter!
This is great way to work on numbers. I think I would use clothes pins.
Great idea! I also like those little clippies you have to organize everything on a rod. Thanks for sharing!