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Early Childhood Numeracy: Building an Understanding of Part–Whole Relationships

This paper looks at a key aspect of numeracy, quantification, the process for determining how many things are in a group. Things can be quantified by counting or by subitizing (knowing just by looking). Many mathematics educators see counting as the first step towards more advanced mathematical understanding. However, there is some evidence to suggest that, for some children, subitizing is well-established before counting. There seems to be reasonable agreement that children need to understand about the relationships between the parts and the whole (part—whole thinking). This paper looks at ways to support children's part—whole thinking in the early childhood years, and the use of egg cartons to create three-dimensional tens-frames and six-frames for this purpose. Collecting up treasures to put in the compartments of an egg carton capitalises on young children's ‘accumulation intent’, and helps them to appreciate the way that numbers are composed of other numbers.