Counting Collections
The article Counting Collections
talks about how spending time simply counting collections in Kindergarten, and first grade helps students build strong math skills. Counting collections allow children to practice oral counting, develop efficient counting strategies, group objects in strategic ways, record numbers and represent their thinking (Counting Collections, 2007)
.
The article shared how the school district has students count collections in the first few weeks of school. This allows students to get to know their classroom and teacher and provides the teacher with ample opportunity to assess each student. I love the idea of counting collections because it allows students to think critically and find alternative ways to group and count on their own. The counting collections activity could also be used along with story problems to add another depth of learning. County collections could encourage students to count higher than a peer or differently than a peer. Students would also be likely to observe a different method of sorting and counting from their peers. Counting collections could also be used beyond the mentioned age groups. This could be
a great way to help second and third graders look at it in multiplication by making piles of three, four, five, etc., and coming up with a way to find out the total. References
Counting Collections. (2007). Teaching Children Mathematics
, 356-361.
