Year 4: Number and Counting Concepts We have just published a brief summary of some of the most important number and counting concepts to be taught in Year 4. They include the 5 sections below. 1. Vocabulary for counting As well as all the vocabulary learned in earlier years children should be aware of the vocabulary below. They should know what the terms mean and be able to read and write them, with the correct spelling. Ordinal numbers:   first,   second,   third,   fourth…. etc Cardinal numbers:  one,   two,   three,    four…. ( Cardinal numbers indicate quantity, whilst ordinal numbers indicate position. ) >  means ' is greater than'   e.g.  4 > 3  or  7 x 8 > 2 x 7 < means ' is less than'  e.g.    8 < 10  or   2 x 3 < 4 x 4 (The arrow always points to the smaller quantity.) Numbers, including negative numbers, are to be compared and the larger, or largest, decided upon. When comparing two similar numbers begin the comparison with the most significant digit eg   4385 and 4397 begin by comparing the thousands (4), then the hundreds (3) and so on. 2. Reading and writing numbers Children should develop their understanding of place value to include thousandes. For example, know that in the number 5 555: The digit 5 in the thousands column is worth 5 000 The digit 5 in the hundreds column is worth 500 The digit 5 in the tens column is worth 50 The digit 5 in the units column is worth 5 Use unifix, centicubes or squared paper to help with the idea that a digit in any column will become ten times bigger if it moves one place to the left and ten times smaller if it moves one place to the right. 3. Counting In order for children to be really confident with handling numbers it is very important that they have a great deal of practice in counting forwards and backwards. To re-inforce place value counting on and back in ones, tens, hundreds and thousands is especially worthwhile. A number line is very useful in helping with this. In the classroom or group situation children can be encouraged to count in turn and a 'best time' achieved - only do this when all have gained some confidence. 4. Negative numbers When used to indicate a negative number, the sign may be written level with the middle of the number, as in –4, and sometimes it is raised. Both forms are used to familiarise children with the two types of usage. 5. Number sequences Children should be able to understand, read and write the following terms: next,      consecutive,     sequence,       predict,       continue,       rule. They should be able to count on in 2s,   3s,  4s, and 5s to about one hundred and then count back. A 1 - 100 number line is really useful for this kind of work, or a number square. It is important that children learn to count on and back from different starting points i.e. do not always start counting from 1. It is not as easy as it sounds when the starting point is unfamiliar: e.g. count on in 4s from 37 Constant practice out loud is very valuable! A series of numbers can be recognised as a SEQUENCE which can be continued and further numbers in the sequence can be PREDICTED. From this a RULE can be made for the sequence. At first this rule will be in words only. In later years these rules can be written in algebra. Calculators can be very useful for this type of work. There is  more details of all these 5 points on the Year 4 Number concepts pages.