Counting . The purpose of counting is to identify a quantity – find how many. Many counting activities focus on saying the numbers in order but there is more to counting than this. There are 4 understandings needed for students to learn to be proficient at counting. . The first is rote counting which involves knowing and being able to say the number names in order. The second is point counting where each object to be counted is tagged with only one of the number names in order. . The third is ra