Number Sense

Teachers Get These Engaging Ordinal Number Activities for your kiddos. They’ll make learning how to name the position of something from 1st, 2nd, 3rd to last great fun!

Ordinal numbers are a special kind of number that tells the position of something. As the name suggests, ordinals help identify the order of things in a list; for example first, second, third, etc.

Now, this doesn’t sound complicated it can be a little tricky for little learners, usually Foundation, Kindergarten, Preprimary and preschoolers. 

Previously Students have probably been focused on counting a sequence, or learning that numbers can be used to tell how many there are in a collection. Now learning Ordinal Numbers is going to challenge this learning to also include the idea of using numbers to identify the order or position of something in a group.

Many children may understand the idea of ‘first’ but tend to associate it with last, and not as a way to identify the position or order of numbers and objects, so just be aware of this when teaching and assessing your students. 

Below are our Ordinal Numbers Teaching Resources and Printables for explicit teaching. Click each image to download.

Related Resources: Daily Number Sense Activities Every Teacher Needs To Know