May 2016, Vol. 22, Issue 9
High Five for Mathematics
Susan Looney and Kristen Carr
A first-grade teacher has students use their hands and fingers to engage in and develop understanding of counting, to combine groups to facilitate counting by fives and tens, and to describe their findings using words and equations.
It is time for math in Kristen Carr’s first-grade classroom. Students excitedly gather on the rug to determine the number of paper fingers that are displayed on the board today (see fig. 1). The goal of the activity is to use the visual model of fingers as a representation and model for base ten. The model proves to be powerful for helping students understand multiple mathematical concepts and discuss their thinking.
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