I decided to head into the realm of counting collections Friday (sort of). Finding enough fun, authentic ways to count can be a challenge with students; and if nothing else, math should be fun.
We had already been discussing ways to count of course - by 2's, 4's, 5's, 10's... and done some work counting large collections in small groups. It never ceases to amaze me how excited students are after we go around and count together and they realize how many objects they organized together, by the end they were high 5's and so many smiles all around.
I like counting large groups objects collaboratively as I can differentiate and model the idea that everyone has a place. When choosing what to count by, I ask that they make sure it is an amount that everyone can make easily. Those that can count past 100 and add easily get a chance to, those that are working on numbers below 5 and 1:1 correspondence get practice building equivalent sets.
We had already been discussing ways to count of course - by 2's, 4's, 5's, 10's... and done some work counting large collections in small groups. It never ceases to amaze me how excited students are after we go around and count together and they realize how many objects they organized together, by the end they were high 5's and so many smiles all around.
I like counting large groups objects collaboratively as I can differentiate and model the idea that everyone has a place. When choosing what to count by, I ask that they make sure it is an amount that everyone can make easily. Those that can count past 100 and add easily get a chance to, those that are working on numbers below 5 and 1:1 correspondence get practice building equivalent sets.
Today the learning intentions were to :
a) Accurately count to the best of our ability
b) Recognize that we do not come to school to be better than each other, but to be better together
We decided as a group how we were going to count our large collection of unfix cubes (I admit that I did nudge towards 10's and not 4's). We began making groups of 10s, with those who had not yet mastered this skill making groups of 2 or 5 for their friends to put together in 10's.
Once they were all grouped by 10's we counted the tens out loud together. At the end of the first 100, students were not convinced, so they requested that we count all 100 cubes. After that we counted 10 10's and noted how many 100's after each group was made. At about the 300, mark I heard "I am tired of all this counting", which most of the students just ignored as they were very into the activity. However, as we were in this together, I acknowledged the fatigue and said we didn't have to count each 10 and I began putting the 10's together without counting. Very shortly they observed:
"Math is so fun because there are so many ways to do things"
"ya you can count OR just measure"
"and group to get answers"
"it is so easy to see"
In the end, I asked: How many 100"s, how many 10's and how many 1's and wrote 791 on the board just for them to see what it looked like written. Then someone spotted two more, so I wrote and read +2=
and someone shouted "793" because it was now so visual. I asked: do you think your parents would believe you if you told them you added 791 +2? "No," They responded. I asked them, "Could you have done this on your own, or is it better to work together?" They are coming around to the idea that working together can be easier for large tasks, and that it is important to make space everyone's gifts and contributions.
a) Accurately count to the best of our ability
b) Recognize that we do not come to school to be better than each other, but to be better together
We decided as a group how we were going to count our large collection of unfix cubes (I admit that I did nudge towards 10's and not 4's). We began making groups of 10s, with those who had not yet mastered this skill making groups of 2 or 5 for their friends to put together in 10's.
Once they were all grouped by 10's we counted the tens out loud together. At the end of the first 100, students were not convinced, so they requested that we count all 100 cubes. After that we counted 10 10's and noted how many 100's after each group was made. At about the 300, mark I heard "I am tired of all this counting", which most of the students just ignored as they were very into the activity. However, as we were in this together, I acknowledged the fatigue and said we didn't have to count each 10 and I began putting the 10's together without counting. Very shortly they observed:
"Math is so fun because there are so many ways to do things"
"ya you can count OR just measure"
"and group to get answers"
"it is so easy to see"
In the end, I asked: How many 100"s, how many 10's and how many 1's and wrote 791 on the board just for them to see what it looked like written. Then someone spotted two more, so I wrote and read +2=
and someone shouted "793" because it was now so visual. I asked: do you think your parents would believe you if you told them you added 791 +2? "No," They responded. I asked them, "Could you have done this on your own, or is it better to work together?" They are coming around to the idea that working together can be easier for large tasks, and that it is important to make space everyone's gifts and contributions.