Grade 1 · Math · Numbers
Noor counts 20 steps
An 8-page story for Grade 1, read in 10 minutes
أ. ليلى بوعزيزي
مدرسة أ
A short story where Noor counts the stairs, miscounts once, and starts again. The child counts along on every page.
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
Count out loud with Noor
Every page has steps that can be counted, and the child puts a finger on each one as they count.
- 2
Stop at 13
Noor stumbles between 11 and 19, which is exactly where most children stumble.
- 3
Hunt for the missing step
Noor counts 19 on the way down after counting 20 on the way up. The child hunts for the step she skipped.
- 4
Count 20 things nearby
The last page asks them to count 20 things in their own room, then draw what they counted.
What's inside
- An eight-page story, short text and photographs
- Countable steps on every page for a finger to land on
- A last page where the child counts 20 things from their own home
Outcomes
Counts from 1 to 20 in order without skipping a number.
Touches exactly one object for each number they say.
Says which number comes after any number between 10 and 19.
What the teacher focused on
A child who says all the numbers in order is not necessarily counting. I watch the finger, not the voice.
Teaching strategies
- Counting with a finger, one object at a time
- The mistake happens to the character, never to the child
- The counting finishes at home, not on the page
She put the mistake on Noor rather than on the child, because a six-year-old who is told they got it wrong stops counting out loud, and the teacher loses the one thing she was watching. She also refused to end the story with the number printed on the page, because a number that is read is not a number that was counted.
Questions from inside it
- 1How many steps did Noor climb? Put your finger on each one and count.
- 2Noor is standing on step 13. Which step comes next?
- 3Count 20 things in your room, and draw what you counted.
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
Counting to 20 is not memorising the order of the numbers. Children pick the order up early and recite it like a song. Counting means pairing each object with exactly one number: one finger, one thing, one number. From 11 to 19 it gets harder, because the names of those numbers do not follow one rule in Arabic or in English, so a child jumps from 13 to 15 while being certain they did not.
Common mistakes it catches
The voice is running ahead of the finger. Ask for slower counting with the finger moving on every number, and they stop at the last object by themselves.
The teens are learnt as a block of their own, not as a continuation of what came before. Count 10 to 20 on its own three times before going back to the story.
Have the finger stay on the last step counted whenever they pause. The finger holds the place; at this age the memory does not.