Counting & the Color Wheel

Last week I used rocks with my 4-year old to count. The following is a summary:

We were out pulling weeds and I asked him to count rocks and put them into a bucket. I figured he'd count as high as he could go.

Weirdly, we ended up with 40 rocks in the bucket, exactly. 

We went inside and I asked him to get out an underlay. He had spent the last year in a Montessori environment and was familiar with this routine. I have rolled up underlays (cloth place mats) and put them in a drawer where everybody could reach them. He didn't seem very interested in this so I opened the drawer and asked which color he would like to choose. He chose yellow.

Me: "let's count the rocks". 

A: "Okay! One...two... three..." he counted as he lined them up in a row along the broadside of the placemat. When he got to ten, I pointed next to the first rock he laid out and told him to start a new row here. He did. After each set of ten, he didn't seem to be doing it on his own so I reminded him to start a new row over. I counted with him on the numbers he was unsure of.

After we had counted them all together, I took away all but thirteen. We started a three-period-lesson with eleven, twelve and thirteen.

First period: Naming

Me: "count this" (pointing to the row of ten)
A: "one, two three....ten"
Me: "this is ten. This is one (holding one rock and placing it next to the first rock he laid down). Ten and one is eleven. Count them."
A: "one, two, three.... eleven"
Me: "ten and two. Ten and two is twelve. Count them...." etc.
A: "one, two... twelve"

And on with thirteen.

I Swiped away all rocks except for the 10. I put three rocks on the opposite side of the mat.

Second period: Recognition

Me: "Make eleven"
A: puts one rock next to the ten
Me: "Make twelve"
A:..... etc etc.

Third Period: Recall

This is where you make the number and then ask them to name it. We didn't get this far. He was super distracted from me taking pictures. It was over. That's okay. I told him it was time to put the rocks back in the bucket and outside. He did.

Today I invited him to put some rocks in the bucket. 

He didn't want to do that, he had found my stash of markers and wanted to color. So I said "okay, let's count the markers first.

I told him to take them out one at a time. He lined them up as he counted, when he got to ten, I showed him where to start lining up the next group of ten.

And the next, the next, I helped him count the numbers he didn't know. Typically he got a ones digit between 5-9 mixed up, and also needed the names of the tens. This is out of order in the Montessori way, you wouldn't introduce twenty and beyond before mastering the teens.

If we lost count I would put my whole hand over each group of ten and count "ten, twenty, thirty" etc. And then invited him to do the same. Then we continued counting our digits. "ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three.... etc"

There are 58 markers. In case you were wondering :)

Then they colored. Coloring was a thing because last week D had asked if she could have a coloring sheet after she did her math facts. I said yes. It's become the daily routine. Math facts, then coloring sheet.

I put the markers in chromatic order, with D's help.

This led to a discussion of color, where opposite colors were mentioned.
D asked "what are opposite colors?"

And so, there was a color wheel. They watched intently as I created it. I drew/traced/colored very slowly to give the impression I was taking my time. It held their attention.

I explained primary colors, secondary colors and opposites.

I then asked if they wanted to make their own color wheel, they enthusiastically said "YES!"

I helped A with the lines, but otherwise he did his own work.

Writing in front of young children is very important, do it every chance you get. Cursive is best, but forgetting this, I began in print. When I remembered I switched to cursive, which resulted in protests because it was not the same, messing with his sense of order. So I went back to print.

Then they finished coloring their pictures. And then D began on her worksheet for today - subtraction math facts up to ten - and she was giving A a lesson on how to use the manipulatives (blocks in this case) to find the solution. This was a spontaneous social interaction which of course I relished and snapped a photo.