Math Monday Numbers

Mondays are going to be all about math.

 

Numbers

 

Did you know there is a small difference between natural numbers and whole numbers.  It might sound if it is a trick question, but there is a slight difference.  In starting to teach my girls Algebra 1 I have discovered this.  A natural number is when you count starting with the number 1 and so on and so on, where as, a whole number is when you count using the number 0.  I did not know this until recently....I always like to learn something new....so I hope for some of you this is your "something new learned today".

 

There are so many fun and interesting ways to teach numbers to little ones.  In the school where I taught, they used Monster Math.  Monster Math is a fun creative way in using poems and cute little monsters to help recognize and write the numbers 1-10.  Maybe in future years there will be a Monster Number 0. 

 

One of my pet peeves is when someone refers to the number zero (0) as o (like the letter).  This should really be taught in early years of education to help students distinguish between the two.  When I was young and growing up, this was not taught and so we didn't know the difference....but there is a difference.  So, please teach your children and your students the difference.  When using numbers and they are referring to zero, they should be required to say zero and not o.