The key idea of number knowledge at Level 1 is that the objects in a set can be counted.
At level 1 students are learning to count with understanding and identify “how many” in sets of objects. There are two elements involved in counting the objects in a set, number word sequence, and one-to-one matching. The number word sequence describes the words we use to count “one, two, three, four, etc.”. Until a student can produce the number word sequence accurately they are not able to count a set of objects. One-to-one matching describes the connection between the words spoken, and the objects in the set. For a count to be accurate, each object must be assigned one word in the number sequence. If this is the case then the last number defines the size of the set (the cardinal number of the set). Once students count by ones they can learn to ‘skip count’, or count in multiples of a given number. Skip counting in 2s, 5s or 10s are the most commonly used.
This key idea develops from early experience with number during pre-school years.
This key idea is extended in the key idea of number knowledge at level 2 by an understanding of how groupings of ten define our number system.