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Each Set of Stairs is a Group of Ten |
Counting, Counting More and Building Number Sense
I inherited a classroom with many manipulative and a lot of stuff. It took me several weeks in the beginning of the year to organize everything but it was well worth it. This school year a few of my students took inventory of each item in the room. This was serious business and involved developing number sense and counting.We start by putting all of the Unfix cubes into groups of 5 or 10. We have two tubs of larger cubes and one tube of smaller size cubes. Each student counted within the range that they need to work on but with guided practice begin to develop schema for larger quantities. After we counted Unfix cubes, we counted math tiles, pattern blocks, Cuisenaire Rods, pennies, chips, bears, farm animals, jungle animals, small clocks, books and so on. While working I interjected the vocabulary and concept of estimation but this was not our primary focus. The lesson was differentiated with change The end of the year inventory is finally accurate. Classroom inventory was followed with working with larger numbers using place value.
Prior to Inventory
Prior to this project my students were provided with many opportunities for counting and learning numbers. One of my favorite resources, EPIC BOOKS, offers several concept books that my students found enjoyable:
Lassieur, A., 2012, Cars 100 years ago: Mankato, MN, Amicus.
Lassieur, A., 2012, Phones 100 years ago: Mankato, MN, Amicus.
Mattern, J., M., and B. D. Learning, 2013, Make It 100!: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
McGrath, B. B., B. Shaw, and Y. Canetti, 2011, The baseball counting book = Cuenta con el béisbol: United States, Hatch.
Schwartz, A., 2014, 100 things that make me happy: New York, Harry N Abrams Inc.
Sorenson, A. N., and D. Miles, 2016, The very cold, freezing, no-number day: Sanger, CA, Familius LLC.
