When I started teaching, I had the choice of kindergarten, third grade, or fifth
grade. And I was like, I'm not a math person. I think I'm just gonna do
kindergarten. I could definitely do kindergarten math, right?
Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary
teachers, specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an
impact in the number sense of their students. There is a trend that I've seen
going around of teachers asking other teachers what grade they teach and what
grade they would never teach. So lots of elementary teachers are like, oh I teach
fifth grade, oh I teach third grade, and when they say what grade would you never
teach, they say kindergarten. And a lot of times you're like, why? And it's I think
they think of it as like, oh these kids are so little, they need so much support.
But when you're actually in kindergarten, they're very capable and you think
that's kind of what we're gonna work on. The content itself isn't really that
hard. But if you think about letters in the alphabet, it's actually really hard
to teach somebody how to read. And in the similar way, it can be really hard to
teach people how to count, how to count correctly, and how to count accurately in
a way that will enable them to use that counting knowledge and build a number
sense so that they can use that information to solve problems, math
problems, any problems in the future. So as I said, I thought you know what, this
can be easy. I've got this pattern sorting, counting. I can definitely teach
this math. And so I'm there working on it and I notice that some kids are just
having a really hard time learning how to count. Like something that I'm saying is
just not making sense. And I don't know, and I wasn't sure how to get them from
this I don't understand what you're talking about, to actually understanding
the concept of counting and the concept of number. So there started my deep dive
into early elementary math and how to teach kids how to count. So what I found
out is there's lots of different stages to counting. So in the next couple weeks,
I'm going to be going through each of those stages talking to you about what to
look for and what you can do to help students move from the counting stage
that they are at to the next counting stage. So counting can definitely be
tricky. And in a previous episode, I talked about the aspects of number if you
want to learn more about that. But the aspects of number are knowing the number
sequence, so the verbal, knowing the quantity. So if I say four, you know how
many that is, and the symbolic representation. So the squiggle of four
means those four objects, and you can count that high to know that that's what
the name of that number is. And when you can develop those together, you can use
the strategy of counting to solve other problems. So the first stage of counting
that you might see is called an emergent counter. An emergent counter is a
little one, a student, who might be getting stuck on number words or sequences.
They might have a hard time matching numbers to objects and identifying the
number symbols and knowing what that quantity represents. So if you're working
with a student and you ask them to count something for you, you might see students
skipping numbers in the number sequence. So they might say one, two, six, four, ten,
and so on and so forth. You might see them saying more than one number when
counting objects. So if I have three objects and they get to the third, they might go
three, four, five instead of just saying one, two, three. You might also kind of
see them have, I call it the hover finger, where they just kind of move their
finger on top of the things that they're counting, but they're not actually
matching a numeral to a value. You might also see that they're not yet familiar
with common dot patterns, like the ones that you might see on a dice. If you're
seeing students as emergent counters, there are some things you can do to
support them in kind of solidifying that and moving to the next stage. So the
first thing that they will need to practice, well not the first thing, but
one of the things they'll need to practice is the number sequence to be
able to count high enough to know what the quantity of the collection that
you're trying to have them count is. So in a previous episode, I talked all about
things you can do for rope counting and that would be really helpful to look
back on, as well as some activities you can do for one-to-one correspondence to
help kids with the number sequence. So quickly lots of movement and counting
movement songs, counting songs, that kind of thing can really help students
learn the number sequence. The next thing they'll need to work on is developing
one-to-one correspondence. So ways that you can work on that, especially if
they're just emergent counters, is just kind of having them match different
quantities together to understand if I have one over here, you need one over
there, and there's lots of ways that you can do that. You can use cards, you can
use dice, you can have them just put things on top of others. This is also a
really great opportunity to bring in a lot of play. If you have a play kitchen,
you might say, oh I need to set the table for five of my friends, what will we need?
So for each friend, they would need to get a plate, a cup, and then they're
starting to match, okay one person needs one cup, needs one fork, or whatever
you're playing, each person will need one thing, and that can also help them kind
of understand the concept of one-to-one correspondence. Kids also really love
stories, so you might use a themed counting mat, I will link some down in
the description, and have them create stories around numbers and around
counting. So maybe you have a space scene and they have little astronaut
counters, and you might say okay five astronauts are in the rocket going to
space, can you get out five astronauts, and then they can work on counting five,
and that's something you can do in small groups. So if you have a group of students
who are emergent counters and needing extra practice, that's a great way that
you can kind of monitor all of them at the same time. If you don't necessarily
have a play kitchen or have enough for everybody to be playing at the same time,
that's something you can also do to support your emergent counters. And while
working on that, take opportunities to do a lot of repetition of the numbers, and
matching the quantity to a numeral. And I don't necessarily mean having kids just
sit there and you know copy five a million times on a worksheet, that's not
what I'm saying, just kind of making it meaningful for them. So if I'm setting my
table again with five kids, I might have a number five card out, be like okay, this
is the number five, I have five friends. So with these five friends I need to get
my five plates, my five forks, my five cups. And then they can start to kind of
put those things together, the number sequence, the quantity, and the written
numeral. And something that can be really helpful for students at this point is
for them to kind of keep track or set goals for their accounting. Now, especially
at the beginning of the year, they might not even know what goal they're working
on. So this is where it can be really helpful to bring in a visual goal setting
chart or sheet so kids can know what it is that they're working on. I will put a
link in the show notes to examples of this and kind of how to use a goal
setting sheet. But this can be really helpful for motivating students into
wanting to learn how to count. And these goal setting sheets are not
necessarily for the whole class to see where everybody is. It's really a
chance for that student to be able to reflect on their own learning and know
what they're working towards with you. And that's something that you guys can
keep checking on and growing on. And positive momentum in those little goals
helps kids keep going and want to accomplish the next goal and the next
goal. So it's really setting them on a trajectory of I don't know this yet, but
I'm going to learn and I'm gonna have fun while I'm doing it. Because especially
in kindergarten with an emergent counter, if you have emergent counters in
kindergarten, it should be fun. They're still kids. They're little. I really love
to see kids having fun and especially in math math is definitely a place where
kids can have a lot of fun. We want them to keep that love of math and love of
learning throughout the year and beyond. So this was emergent counters. Students
who don't yet know the number sequence might still be still having trouble with
one-to-one correspondence and might have trouble remembering the numeral
symbols, which can often be the trickiest part for them to learn. So next week, I'll
move on to the next stage. If you have a minute you've been enjoying the podcast,
I would love if you can leave a review to let me know what you're liking, what
you'd like to see from me next. I also have a link in the show notes to a Google
form. If there's an episode I did that you'd like more information on, maybe like
a part two, you can leave me all of the suggestions at the Google form in the
link in the show notes. Until next time, keep counting everyone!