Number 0
Toddler · 2–3Color the number 0 — zero. Zero is the one numeral that points at nothing, and that is the hardest idea on any of these pages — every other digit names something a child can see and touch. There are deliberately no circles beside it to color; the empty space is the lesson. Counting down to blast-off is the usual way in. There are no circles to color on this one, which is the whole point of it. Print it on A4 or US Letter, or color it online with tap-to-fill.
The number that means none
Zero is the hardest number on this page to explain and the most interesting. Every other numeral points at something a child can see and touch; zero points at the absence of it. That is why this page has no circles to colour beside the numeral — the empty space is the lesson, and it is worth saying out loud rather than treating as a missing feature.
Children usually grasp none long before they accept that it has a number of its own. Good ways in: eat all the grapes and ask how many are left, count down to blast-off, or take turns hiding every last block. The word none arrives first; the numeral 0 attaches to it later.
Writing 0
Zero is a single closed oval, drawn anticlockwise from the top, and it is the easiest numeral to form — most children can make a recognisable one before they can make a 2 or a 5. Its only real problem is the letter O, which is the same shape. Context sorts it out, and some writing schemes slash the zero to keep the two apart.
Frequently asked questions
- When do children understand what zero means?
- Most understand none as a quantity around three, but accepting zero as a number that sits before one, and can be written down, usually comes closer to four or five. Counting down to zero is the most reliable way in.
- Why are there no circles to count on this page?
- Because zero means none. The blank space beside the numeral is deliberate, and pointing it out — there are none to colour, that is what zero means — is the whole activity.