5 is a useful benchmark to quantify and compare smaller collections.
Each group
A collection of Unifix or large interlocking cubes. A student handful should be around 4 to 12 cubes.
Each student
Towers of 5 Student sheet
Build
Introduce the activity: We are going to use 5 to help us work out how many cubes are in our handfuls and to compare who has more.
Show students how to do the activity in pairs:
- Both students take a handful of cubes.
- Each student arranges their cubes into towers. Once they have 5 cubes in a tower, they start making a new tower.
- Students name their total number of cubes and its relationship to 5. For example, I have 8 cubes. 8 is 3 more than 5.
- Students compare their collections. They use 5 as a benchmark to determine who has more and who has fewer cubes. For example, I have 8 cubes. 8 is 3 more than 5. You have 9 cubes and 9 is 4 more than 5. You have more cubes in your handful.
- They record the two different arrangements of collections on Towers of 5 Student sheet and circle which arrangement has more cubes.
Students repeat the activity at least three times.
Learning goal
Through this simple game, students explore 5 as a benchmark. Students create towers of 5 cubes and use these towers as a tool to quantify and compare collections. As they do this, students are building relationships between 5 and other numbers, for example, 8 is 3 more than 5.
We suggest using cubes for this game. They are larger in size which limits the number that students can pick up. We expect that students will pick up 4-12 cubes in a handful.
We have chosen to present 5 as a tower of cubes as it looks similar in structure to a five-frame. We build on this structure in the next task, where the ten-frame is introduced.
Through this simple game, students explore 5 as a benchmark. Students create towers of 5 cubes and use these towers as a tool to quantify and compare collections. As they do this, students are building relationships between 5 and other numbers, for example, 8 is 3 more than 5.
We suggest using cubes for this game. They are larger in size which limits the number that students can pick up. We expect that students will pick up 4-12 cubes in a handful.
We have chosen to present 5 as a tower of cubes as it looks similar in structure to a five-frame. We build on this structure in the next task, where the ten-frame is introduced.