COunting Collections
Keep your child engaged for extended periods with
Counting Collections
How do children learn about numbers and develop numeracy skills? By counting, lots and lots of counting. Counting Collections provide children with a semi-structured opportunity to count a collection of objects. You tailor the type and amount of objects to your child's ability. Have a kindergartner at home? Fun, colorful objects they can pick up easily (like Lego bricks) are recommended. A 3 grader? Large amounts provide a good challenge, such as a bag of dried beans. With lots of practice, children start to make discoveries about how to be efficient. A 5 year old may still be counting objects one by one, a 6 or 7 year old may be experimenting with groups of ten, while an 8 or 9 year old may be discovering sophisticated grouping strategies. The goal is to provide children with lots of practice so they can make sense of numbers on their own. As a first step, have your child estimate how many objects. Write the estimate down then let the child begin. Guiding questions to ask include: How do you know you didn't count something twice? Did you use a strategy? How can you easily double check your answer? What number do you find it easiest to count by? So much learning with such a simple activity.
Collections can be anything! Beans, buttons, stones, cereal, blocks, straws. . . the possibilities are endless.
Before counting, have your child estimate how many. Children are encouraged to organize their counting on their own. Provide pencil and paper to help them keep track and to write their final amount.
Simple tools, like muffin tins, paper muffin cups, paper plates, etc. can be provided to help children stay organized. Many children can count by 10s, so organizing by groups of 10 is a good place to start.