Name ordinal numbers from first to tenth

Summary: Line up a row of teddies and point to the nearest teddy saying ‘This is the first teddy’. Then point to the next teddy and say: ‘This is the second teddy’ and continue for the third teddy. Choose 3 more teddies and put them in a row. Identify the first teddy and then ask students to show the second and third teddies. Repeat with other sets of two or three teddies, and other toy collections. Orient the lines in different directions, and vary the choice of colours and toys and which end of the line is designated as the first position.

Summary: Once students are confident with the first three ordinal numbers (first, second and third) then use larger sets of teddies and other toys to introduce other ordinal numbers from fourth to tenth. Students can say the ordinal names together, whilst pointing at each toy: ‘first, second, third, fourth, fifth …’ Once students are confident with the ordinal numbers ‘first’ to ‘tenth’ where the start of the ordered set has been identified, indicate the third teddy and ask students to identify from which end of the line you are counting. Be alert to ambiguous cases. For example, in a line of five the third teddy will always remain third, but asking a student to identify the first from the third can elicit two possible answers. This can actually lead to a good discussion about the fact that there are two possible answers. Then point to an appropriate teddy and say ‘What if I ALSO told you that THIS teddy is the fourth one.’ Prompt students to deduce which of the two possibilities is now correct.