Counting in French: One to ten (1 to 10)

Counting in French with your little ones can be a source of endless, everyday fun! Are you ready for “les chiffres“?

One to ten in French

1. One	un
2. Two	deux
3. Three	trois
4. Four	quatre
5. Five	cinq
6. Six	six
7. Seven	sept
8. Eight	huit
9. Nine	neuf
10. Ten	dix

Rote counting in French

Rote counting is saying the numbers in sequential order. Being able to rote count is not associated with the ability to count objects, but it’s, instead, the ability to recite the numbers in order.

Nursery rhymes such as “1, 2, 3 Nous irons au bois” is a lovely way to introduce numbers to your child and encourage rote counting.

If you want to incorporate movement into your rote counting, you can have fun marching while counting or reciting the numbers as you go up the stairs together.

One-to-one correspondence

One to one correspondence is the ability to point or touch an item while saying the number out loud. Unlike rote counting, it involves understanding that a particular number corresponds to a specific quantity. There is an abundance of opportunities to practice one-to-one correspondence in our daily lives, both at home and outside.

Loose parts are great for teaching one-to-one correspondence. You can use all sorts of objects on hand, such as pinecones you’ve collected from your walks or even old caps from your child’s favourite fruit pouches.

You can introduce a small set or a larger set depending on your child’s age and ability.

Line them up and point to or touch each one as you say the numbers from one to ten in French.

Here, we are using balls made of play dough to practice:

You can also move each object in the set as you say each number out loud.

Number recognition

Number recognition is the ability to visually recognize and identify the numbers. Since numbers are everywhere, children start to recognize numbers in their surroundings.

Even at a very young age, my daughter loved pointing out house numbers during our daily walks. She enjoyed stopping in front of a sign and jumped with excitement as she said the name of the number out loud.

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