How is this different from the number line?

A number line is a scale with marks and jumps on it, and it is for showing where a number sits and how far it is to another one. A counting stick has ten sections and no scale: what is being counted is the sections, and the activity is saying the number at a division before it is revealed. Different lesson, different tool.

Because a real counting stick has ten, and because ten is what makes the routine work: the halves, the quarters and the tenths of the whole stick all land on a division, so a class can always get to a number from one it already knows.

Can I count backwards?

Point right to left. The numbers are the same either way, and reading them backwards is the harder half of counting in steps. If you want negative numbers on the stick, take the start below zero.

Can I put my own numbers on it?

No, and that is deliberate. Every number on the stick is the start plus so many steps, which is what makes it a counting stick rather than a row of labels, and it means the numbers cannot be wrong.

Counting Stick

Calculation · Year 1–Year 6

Ten sections. Reveal the numbers in the order you choose.

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About the counting stick

Ten sections with the two ends numbered and everything in between blank. Point at a division, the class says the number, and one tap puts it up. Tap it again and it comes off.

The order the numbers go up in is the whole lesson, which is why they are revealed one at a time rather than all at once. The ends, then the middle, then the quarters, then the ones a class has to work out from what is already there. A printed number line cannot do that and neither can a slide.

Count in anything from a tenth to a thousand, starting anywhere. Count in twos from one for the odd numbers, in threes from zero for the three times table, in tenths from zero for decimals, in sixes from zero to find a sixth of sixty. A start below zero counts back through it.

Steps adds a second row underneath: how many steps along each division is. With the multiples above and the multiplier below, the whole of a times table fact is on the board at once, which is the thing a counting stick is really for.

The ends and the middle have longer ticks, because those three are the ones a class is given first and everything else is worked out from them.

How to use it on your whiteboard

1Tap a division to show its number. Tap it again to take it off.
2Count in sets the step, from a tenth up to a thousand.
3Start at moves the whole stick, and goes below zero.
4None, Ends and All set every number at once. Ends is where the routine starts.
5Steps shows how many steps along each division is, under the stick.
6Tap Fullscreen to fill the board.

Questions

How is this different from the number line?: A number line is a scale with marks and jumps on it, and it is for showing where a number sits and how far it is to another one. A counting stick has ten sections and no scale: what is being counted is the sections, and the activity is saying the number at a division before it is revealed. Different lesson, different tool.
Why ten sections?: Because a real counting stick has ten, and because ten is what makes the routine work: the halves, the quarters and the tenths of the whole stick all land on a division, so a class can always get to a number from one it already knows.
Can I count backwards?: Point right to left. The numbers are the same either way, and reading them backwards is the harder half of counting in steps. If you want negative numbers on the stick, take the start below zero.
Can I put my own numbers on it?: No, and that is deliberate. Every number on the stick is the start plus so many steps, which is what makes it a counting stick rather than a row of labels, and it means the numbers cannot be wrong.