Grade 1 · Math · Numbers
Everything gets counted once
An interactive counting activity, 10 groups of up to 20 objects
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مدرسة أ
The child taps each object to count it, and a tapped object dims and will not take a second tap. They type the number at the end and find out right away whether it was right.
This page is exactly what a teacher's published work will look like. Only the teacher is not real yet.
What the student does
- 1
Tap to count
Each tap counts one object, and the object dims in the same moment.
- 2
The same thing cannot be counted twice
A dimmed object does not answer a second tap, so the rule arrives from the screen before it arrives from a correction.
- 3
Type the number they reached
Once everything has dimmed, they type how many they counted and find out at once.
- 4
The group grows
Groups start at five objects and end at twenty, and the objects are scattered rather than lined up in a row.
What's inside
- Ten groups from five to twenty objects, scattered rather than lined up
- A ten-frame that appears once the count passes 10
- Immediate marking after every group
Outcomes
Counts a scattered group of 20 without counting anything twice.
Writes the number they reached in digits, up to 20.
Counts on from 10 instead of restarting at 1 every time.
What the teacher focused on
Children do not lose the numbers, they lose their place. So I gave them something that keeps the place for them.
Teaching strategies
- The rule is enforced by the activity, not by a correction
- Objects scattered, never in a row
- The group grows a step at a time, five to twenty
She had tapped objects dim rather than disappear, because disappearing erases what the child already counted and leaves them nothing to check themselves against. And she refused to put the objects in a row, because a row can be counted by eye alone, and then a child looks like a counter without having counted.
Questions from inside it
- 1How many bears are here? Tap each bear once.
- 2You counted 10. Keep going from there, do not start again.
- 3Which of these two groups has 16 things in it?
Curriculum
- Grade
- Grade 1
- Subject
- Math
- Unit
- Numbers
- Taught in
- Egypt
Where this lesson sits in the curriculum
The same lesson appears in these countries' curricula. One page, five paths to it.
When to use it
The explanation
Correct counting rests on three things: a fixed order for the numbers, one number for each object, and the last number said being the answer. Grade 1 children usually have the first, trip on the second, and take time to be convinced by the third. That is why the activity asks for a tap: touching turns «one number for each object» from a rule they are told into something they do with their hand.
Common mistakes it catches
The dimmed objects answer it: what is dim is done. Ask them to start at one edge and move in one direction until they reach the other.
This is not weak counting, it is a question that did not land. Ask instead: «what was the last number you said?», then put the two questions side by side until they join up.
They write the two digits in the order they heard them. Show them the ten-frame instead: one full row of 10, then 2 outside it. The 10 goes down first and the 2 after it.