What is the mathematical thinking that children are working through Counting Collections? " Counting is more than repeating a rote  sequence and reorganizing the numerals.   Learning to count while simultaneously developing a sense of quantities and number relationships is an important foundation for kindergarten students. It is expected  that the student understands a quantity represents the number and how numbers are related. Counting is finding out how many."  S. Ball (sd38) Children will develop the skills listed below through repeated counting opportunities. In our Kindergarten room we do our counting framework each Monday morning for about 30 minutes including the mini lesson.  Here are some   of the skills identified by  Sandra Ball, that the children are learning as they experience the weekly counting routine: correct sequence of number names one to one correspondence saying one number name for each object counted cardinality c...

I was in the classroom yesterday doing my spring cleaning. Here are a few photos to inspire you! Loose Parts Shelves and Spring Counting Jars Literacy Shelves Block Play Area Science Shelves Family Play  view from the room of the literacy and math shelves and our beautiful alphabet frieze made by the the children :) Math Play  Spring Word Wall ...

Find It From Carole Fullerton Subitizing is being able to tell the numbers in a set quickly, without counting. Being able to subitize is an important component of number fluency. There are two types of subtizing; perceptual and conceptual. Perceptual is the simplest, and we can expect children in Kindergarten to see two or three objects like dots and know instantly what it is. Conceptual is the ability to see two numbers within a larger set like four dots on a die can be two and two. I practice both types with my kindergarten students every day for at least five minutes during transitions. I also include lots of dice games in our daily math play and exploration activities. Here are just a few being used in our spring kindergarten term: Transition Games: Finger Flashes - I flash dot cards which I have made uniquely for  my students, beginning with simple familiar patterns like you see on dice and then larger numbers. I use die formation for my dots an...

This fun nature math game was adapted from the book Messy Math by Juliet Robertson by Tiffany Qiu. Tiffany chose four nature objects and used the child's hand as the measuring tool.  The children searched the area for a leaf as wide as their hand, a fir cone that fit their hand span, a stone the size of their thumb nail and a stick shorter than their hand. She included a small black and white sketch with each object.  The children had great fun searching the forest for their activity and then checked in with an adult when done. Then the finished sheet was sent home so that they could talk about forest math with their families. A really engaging activity that is easy to implement in the forest. ...

The children had so much fun this afternoon combining easter art and math. First they decorated the paper egg and then painted with water colours. Later it was glued onto the coloured paper. Next the children measured the height of the egg using loose parts, repeating the measuring three or four times using the loose parts at their table. Finally they chose one of the loose parts to record the height. Tomorrow they get to take their work home to share with their families. ...

I got the idea for this game from an old Math Their Way game and then adapted it for the outdoors. It is a fun and active partner game. The two children collect ten sticks and make a line between them. Each partner has one die. They take turns rolling a die and moving that number of sticks to their side of the number line. The sticks move back and forth until one partner has all ten sticks. The children played 3 or 4 games. It was an active and fun game which provided extra practice counting, estimating, subtilizing and partner work.  ...