Growth Point 1
Counting Growth Points activities
The tasks listed on the following pages are rich tasks from various sources that may be used with multi-level groups or students who are working at a particular level.
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1. Rote counting to 20
Produce the forward number name sequence to at least 20, but are not yet able to reliably count a collection of that size.
Number match
Number match
Materials: Set of flashcards with numbers 1 to 20 written in numerals and represented in dot arrangements.
Activity: Shuffle cards and students match the dot cards with the numerals.
Related key ideas: Subitising.
Birthdates
Birthdates
Materials: Birthdates template (A3 size recommended).
Activity: Teacher records students’ birthdates (regardless of month) on the calendar in the relevant box. Use questions such as ‘How many people were born on the 2nd of the month?’.
Related key ideas: Cardinality principle, ordinal principle.
Variation: Make a pictograph displaying the classes findings.
Flash
Flash
Materials: Set of dot cards 1 to 20, each pair of students has set of cards numbered 1 to 20.
Activity: Teacher flashes up a dot card at random. In pairs, students determine how many dots there are and hold up the corresponding numeral. Teachers ask, ‘How did you “see” the dots? How do you know there are “x” dots? Who did it a different way?’.
Related key ideas: Quantity, stable-order principle, cardinality principle, conservation of number, order-irrelevance principle, subitising.
Stick up
Stick up
Materials: Stickers numbered from 1 up to the number of students in class.
Activity: Each student puts a sticker on the front of their jumper. They then work as a class to order themselves from smallest to largest (or largest to smallest).
Related key ideas: Quantity, stable-order principle, order-irrelevance principle.
Variation: Ask one or two students to be the ones to place the rest of the class in order.
Counting frame
Counting frame
Materials: Counting frame, two sets of numerals 1 to 10.
Activity: Students use a counting frame to represent numbers 1 to 10 on the left-hand side of each row. They then peg on the corresponding digit.
Related key ideas: Quantity, one-to-one principle, stable-order principle, cardinality principle, conservation of number, order-irrelevance principle.
Variation: Encourage students to study the right-hand side of each row. Peg on the corresponding digit to that side. Can they see a pattern?
Caterpillar walk
Caterpillar walk
Materials: Playdough, toothpicks, flashcards with numbers 1 to 20.
Activity: Student draws a card from the pile and then makes a playdough sausage or caterpillar, and adds the number of legs indicated by the card. Partner to check for accuracy.
Related key ideas: Quantity, one-to-one principle, stable-order principle, cardinality principle, conservation of number, order-irrelevance principle.
What's your number?
What's your number?
Materials: Calculator, beads, string.
Activity: Before using this task, it is recommended that teachers explore the constant function on the calculator with their students. Ask students to type in 1 on the calculator. They can then move one bead across the string to show 1.
Students then enter +1 on the calculator and move another bead across to show 2. Each time the students press the = key, they count up by 1. Continue counting and showing the count on the bead string.
Related key ideas: Stable-order principle, one-to-one principle, cardinality principle.
Variation: Use the constant function to explore other counting patterns. Following on from using the bead string, students can record their counting pattern on a hundreds chart. Use the ‘constant’ function on the calculator to count backwards.
Where does this numeral go?
Where does this numeral go?
Materials: Four different coloured sets of numeral cards (0–10).
Activity: Separate the cards with the number 0 on them and place them in a vertical row. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them face-down in horizontal rows of 10, with one of the 0 cards face-up at the start of each row. You should have 4 rows with 11 cards in each, and in each row only the first card, the 0, is turned face-up. Students take turns to randomly up-turn one of the cards. If the card they up-turn is, for example, a green 7, they need to go to the row which has the green 0 and find the number 7 position. The next student then removes the card in that position so that the previous player can place their card. This reveals the next card to be placed. The aim of the game is to create 4 different coloured number tracks which are complete 0 to 10.
Related key ideas: Stable-order principle, one-to-one principal, cardinality principal.
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