When I was about 5 years old, my kindergarten teacher interviewed my classmates and me, asking us to describe the recipe for a meal our family made at home. She turned it into a recipe book to share with our parents. Watch the video and I think we'll all have a pretty good laugh. 

When you're 5 years old, it's cute... to have "bad" number sense. I'm glad my parents kept this recipe book (artifact) so I could reference it years later as an adult... when ironically I teach math... and love helping students develop their number sense.

At what point would you be worried about my classmates and me if we still thought the food needed to be prepared as we described when we were kindergartners? You'd probably have legitimate concerns about me and my number sense if I still thought bacon needed to be cooked for _____ (watch the video). 

In my opinion, this really drives the point home that developing number sense takes time. It's a journey. Not only for our students, but for us as well. In regards to our students and their number sense journey, how fortunate are we as educators to be their guides?

YES! I agree it would be nice if more students came to us each year equipped with number sense skills we might think are appropriate for their age. The reality is, they don't. One of my favorite parts of teaching math is capitalizing on those opportunities to guide students in developing their number sense... and that's one reason why Estimation 180 exists. It's a vehicle for students to develop their number sense.

Do you have an artifact or memory of having similar number sense as a child? If so, I hope you're brave enough to tell us in the comments on the YouTube video (same video as above).

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