Addition And Subtraction Within 40
Numbers let us say what we see. They are my friends and I hope they can be yours too. Cavemen only had two numbers: 1 and 2.
The number 1 represents one-ness. If there is only one of something, anything.
- One apple
- One rock
- One Mom
- One family
- First day
The number two represents two-ness. If there are only two of something.
- Two cherries
- Two wheels (a bike)
- Two parents
- A couple dogs
- Second day
After 2 of something, the cavemen didn’t have numbers to express how many. They only said “Many”, But “Many” is not a number. Human Civilization continued to evolve, and we invented a whole number system! Numbers can represent anything. They can be big or small. The number of leaves on a tree. 10,000. The number of gold bricks in my basement. 0.
Numbers can bunch together. That means “added” together. If we want to know the number of apples and cherries, then we can add the number of apples to the number of cherries.