MyLeoNes™

Counting from one to five — Foreign languages, 4–6 years

Learn a short number sequence and use it to say how many things you can see. Foreign languages, 4–6 years.

The idea

Counting words let you match one word to each thing: one, two, three, four, five. The final number tells the total, not just the last thing you touched. In another language, the words sound different, but the number of objects stays the same.

Why it helps

Without counting, three apples and five apples can both feel like "a lot". Number words solve the problem of saying exactly how many there are. People developed number words to share amounts when pointing or holding up fingers was not enough.

A little example

There are five buttons on the table. First, touch one button and say "one". Touch the next buttons and say "two", "three", "four", and "five", using each word once. The last word is "five", so there are five buttons altogether.

A common mix-up

A child may say the number words quickly, touch one object twice, or start at two. Then the final number does not match the objects. This is reasonable because the new words and the pointing action compete for attention. Slow down and touch each object once.

Where it is used

You count steps, grapes, toy cars, candles, or people waiting in a line. You can also ask for two crayons or say that you have four blocks. Counting is helpful for small groups, but a pile that is too large needs a longer number sequence or another way to measure it.

Keep exploring

Other languages

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