Toad-ally Exceptional Learners: Counting to 10 and 20

A change that Common Core has brought to teaching math is helping students understand the relationship between numbers and quatities and connect counting to cardinality. I created Match Me a Turtle for my students to count a set (dice dots) and see sets and then match the digits to the turtle. Then they can match the digit and turtle with the number word. By using dice students learn that no matter how you arrange a number of dots, they will digit doesn't change.

These connections are higher-level skills that require students to analyze, reason about, and explain relationships between numbers and sets of objects. Once they have mastered numbers and sets to 10, they will be comfortable with working numbers to 20. Common Core states that students should have this skill mastered by the end of Kindergarten.

Students implement correct counting procedures by pointing to one object at a time (one-to-one correspondence), using one counting word for every object (synchrony/ one-to-one tagging), while keeping track of objects that have and have not been counted. This is the foundation of counting.

Students answer the question “How many are there?” by counting objects in a set and understanding that the last number stated when counting a set (…8, 9, 10) represents the total amount of objects: “There are 10 bears in this pile.” (cardinality). Since an important goal for children is to count with meaning, it is important to have children answer the question, “How many do you have?” after they count. Often times, children who have not developed cardinality will count the amount again, not realizing that the 10 they stated means 10 objects in all.

Young children believe what they see. Therefore, they may believe that a pile of cubes that they counted may be more if spread apart in a line. As children move towards the developmental milestone of conservation of number, they develop the understanding that the number of objects does not change when the objects are moved, rearranged, or hidden. Children need many different experiences with counting objects, as well as maturation, before they can reach this developmental milestone.

The first math game is to 10 and the second to 20 also includes base 10 blocks along with the number word. Match Me a Turtle

Fall Couting to 20 With Base 10 and Words