How Huge Is a Hundred?
How much is a hundred?” How would your students respond to such a question? This article shares the experiences of my first graders as they participated in activities that develop number sense to answer this question. Teaching number sense to students in grades K–4 is an important goal of the NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989). The following activities are based on the Standards in many ways. They require problem solving, reasoning, communicating, and connecting mathematics to everyday situations that interest children. They provide opportunities to develop measurement and place-value concepts and to integrate reading, writing, drawing, and mathematics in ways that contribute to a cooperative learning environment.