Number: Time for tea
View Sequence overviewQuantities can be compared to find which has more and which has less.
Items may be counted in any order as long as each item is only counted once.
Number names have a stable order which allows objects to be counted in order.
Whole class
A container of enough assorted tea party items for the whole class (e.g. cups, cutlery, plates, serviettes, forks, spoons)
Word wall from previous task
A number line showing numbers 1-20 on a long paper strip/large paper sheet
Each student
A3 sheet of paper
Sticky note
Task
Revise: Last time we sorted a box of things into categories and found that there were lots of items we would use at the table to have a meal. We counted the number of items and recorded how many were in each category as a number.
Discuss how students made sure to count accurately:
- Each item is counted just once.
- Numbers are always counted in the same sequence/order.
- The final number named represents the number of items in the whole collection.
Show students some tea party items and review what these items are used for. Review the different categories that students used to sort the items.
Model counting some of the items using the number sequence, emphasising that the last item counted tells us how many.
Discuss: What do you have on the table at teatime, yum cha, a BBQ, dinner etc.? What would you need if we had a class tea party?
Invite students to share their recollections, and to consider what they might include on their placemat if the class had a tea party.
Pose the task: Draw and label a placemat showing each item you would need for a class tea party.
Students work at tables in small groups. Provide each student with a sheet of A3 paper to draw their placemat.
Allow students time to draw their own placemat and label the items. If they need to, they can take items from the container of tea party items to use as a reference while drawing. They can use the word wall to help with labelling each item.
When students have drawn their placemats, ask them to compare their placemat with the other students in their group. Ask them what they notice that is similar/different about their own placemat compared to other placemats in their group.
- Do you have the same number of items on each placemat in your group? Why/not?
- Who has more items than you? Who has less items than you?
- How many items are there altogether on all of the placemats in your group? How can you find out?
Each student counts all of the items drawn on their placemat, records their name and their total number on a sticky note, and sticks the note to their placemat.
Students take turns counting the items on other placemats in their group to check how many, and check that the number on the sticky note matches the count. Encourage students to start their counting with different items, to see if they still have the same number.
Consider:
- Do students count with one-to-one correspondence?
- Do students recognise the last number counted is the total in the count (cardinal principle)?
- Do students recognise that the order items are counted in does not affect the total (order irrelevance principle)?
- Do students count the items on other placemats to see how many there are, or do they use the number on the sticky note on the placemat to see how many there are?
Select examples of student placemats and sticky notes from each group to share during the Connect phase. Focus on placemats with different numbers of items to facilitate discourse around more than, less than, and the same.
The purpose of this Connect phase is for students:
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Display a number line showing the numbers 1-20.
Invite two or three selected students to demonstrate to the class how they counted the items on their placemat. As they count aloud, you track their count on the number line with your finger.
When they have finished counting, they can place their sticky note (with their name and total number) above the corresponding number on the number line.
Discuss how they counted to find the number of items on their placemat:
- How many items are on your placemat? How did you know how many items were on your placemat?
- We use the counting sequence to count the number of items.
- The last number we count always tells us how many we have altogether.
- How did you keep track of your count?
- Discuss strategies students used to keep track of their count, e.g. using their fingers to touch each item, holding up a finger at a time to show the count.
- Refer to how you kept track on the number line as they counted aloud.
- Does it matter in which order you say the number names as you count the items? Why do you think this?
- The number names have a correct order. As each number is counted, it is one more than the number before and one less than the number after it.
Invite the remaining students to place their sticky note on the matching number on the number line. Relate this number to the number of items on their placemat, for students to connect the number on the number line with the number of items on their placemat.
Discuss which numbers have a sticky note and which do not, and what this means (for example: No students had five items on their placemat. Lots of students had three items on their placemat).
Prompt students to pay attention to where they have put their own sticky note on the number line and to notice where it sits in relation to other sticky notes. Encourage students to notice the number of items on their placemat and the number of items on other students' placemats as they compare where their number sits in relation to others on the number line.
Discuss:
- Are there any sticky notes on the same number as your sticky note? These students have the same number of items as you on their placemats.
- More than one sticky note on a number on the line means that more than one student had that same number of items.
- Are there any sticky notes on a number after your sticky note? These students have more items than you on their placemats.
- Sticky notes that come after their number on the number line refer to numbers that are bigger than their own.
- Are there any sticky notes on a number before your sticky note? These students have less items than you on their placemats.
- Sticky notes that come before their number on the number line refer to numbers that are smaller than their own.
More than, less than or the same
The concepts of “more,” “less,” and “same” are key building blocks for children’s understanding of numbers and counting. Children often hear and use the word “more” in everyday life, so they usually find it easier to understand than “less” (Van de Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2013).
To develop a full understanding of these relationships, students need hands-on experiences comparing the number of items in a collection and linking their comparisons to numerical representations. This task provides opportunity for students to connect the concrete act of counting, saying the counting sequence and recording the last number said, on a sticky note, to show how many items are on their placemat.
When students position this number on a number line, this can serve as a powerful tool for illustrating the relationships between these different experiences of the count. Once a number is located on the line, it becomes a reference point for discussing which numbers are more than, less than, or the same as that number. As students place each sticky note number onto the number line, using the counting order, they learn that the numbers get bigger as they continue the sequence. Therefore, any number that comes after their number in this sequence is 'more than' their number. Likewise, any number which comes before it is ‘less than’ their number.
This not only encourages children to use mathematical language but also encourages students to explore how numbers relate to each other, deepening their understanding of numerical relationships.
References
Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2013). Elementary and middle school mathematics: Teaching developmentally (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
The concepts of “more,” “less,” and “same” are key building blocks for children’s understanding of numbers and counting. Children often hear and use the word “more” in everyday life, so they usually find it easier to understand than “less” (Van de Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2013).
To develop a full understanding of these relationships, students need hands-on experiences comparing the number of items in a collection and linking their comparisons to numerical representations. This task provides opportunity for students to connect the concrete act of counting, saying the counting sequence and recording the last number said, on a sticky note, to show how many items are on their placemat.
When students position this number on a number line, this can serve as a powerful tool for illustrating the relationships between these different experiences of the count. Once a number is located on the line, it becomes a reference point for discussing which numbers are more than, less than, or the same as that number. As students place each sticky note number onto the number line, using the counting order, they learn that the numbers get bigger as they continue the sequence. Therefore, any number that comes after their number in this sequence is 'more than' their number. Likewise, any number which comes before it is ‘less than’ their number.
This not only encourages children to use mathematical language but also encourages students to explore how numbers relate to each other, deepening their understanding of numerical relationships.
References
Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2013). Elementary and middle school mathematics: Teaching developmentally (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Relate the sticky notes on the number line to the number of items counted on the placemats. Discuss how the number line is useful when students want to find where the number fits.
Explain: We can use counting to find how many we have. We can write how many we have as a number and find where that number fits on a number line. This helps us to compare when we have counted more items than another student, less items than them, or if we have counted the same number of items.
Keep the number line with the sticky notes as it is, to refer to during the next task.