showing 5 in different ways

On Wednesday, the Kindergarteners continued their work with the number 5. During morning meeting I shared our math work for the day;

You will collect 5 things in nature today.

You will create sun art with these 5 things.

How many in each picture?  

Through the morning message, I provided children with the information necessary for our conversation - what type of beautiful things might you find? What things have interesting shapes? We looked at examples of sun art with 5 things thoughtfully arranged - creating the most beautiful art from the shadows left after exposing the paper to sunlight. Many children wanted to find five flowers, or 1 pine cone and 4 sticks, or 3 rocks and 2 flowers - through the planning of their sun art, the Kindergarteners were discussing combinations of 5, thus developing a deeper number sense.

Following rest, we read the book, Hannah’s Collections. The act of collecting is something the children are familiar with, we have previously collected 10 things in nature in celebration of the 10th day of school, we have also counted how many things children have found in the woods during our outdoor classroom. We have sorted and compared how many through our morning message work. Again, the Kindergarteners discussed 5 and the counting tools they have;

- 5 frames

- counting on

- recounting or checking their work

Number sense involves a variety of skills, such as numeral identification, counting and cardinality, one-to-one correspondence, and counting on. Exploring and developing number concepts and number sense through hands on and creative learning helps to set the foundation for learning more advanced math concepts. For the child counting from memorization, although they hear and know the pattern that our number sequence goes in, this experience challenged them to hold on to a number and count on. For example, as they were searching for a delicate yellow flower, they paused at three. They had three things in their bag. When the flower was found, they counted on, 3, 4…  Counting on allows a child to continue counting objects added to a previously counted group without recounting the entire group.

For some children, the use of an empty five frame helped them to count and recount again, ensuring that they only had 5 things. When counting, the concept of “one-to-one correspondence” is the understanding that each object being counted represents one more.

Following our read aloud and discussion, each child held their brown paper bag for collecting and rushed out into the sunshine. Ms. Shelley joined us for the afternoon, having read a story about shapes in nature with the Kindergarteners earlier in the week. The sounds of rustling paper, shouts of delight, and counting could be heard across the grass and playground. Some children ran to the basket to grab an empty five frame, while others searched deep into the tall grasses - finding the most interesting sticks and dried flowers to add to their collection of 5.

Once we all gathered back together, Ms. Shelley modeled using the sun paper. Blocking the light of the sun from the child's work space, as the math artists arranged their five beautiful things carefully across their canvas. A piece of plexiglass helped to keep the things in place as we waited two minutes in the bright sunlight. Once the shadow of the 5 things was left behind, the children helped to dip their canvas in water and hang it between the trees to dry. The Kindergarteners initiated and engaged in meaningful conversations as they looked at their gallery of 5 - noticing that you could clearly count 5 on some, but not all. Some of the branches and flowers created such intricate designs and shapes. Perhaps the most valuable part of our experience, was the children's incredible excitement and eagerness. There was a shared joy amongst the mathematicians, as they searched, counted, and sorted - waiting as the sun helped to create something magical.