Mathematics lesson plan

(Adapted from Gervasoni & Parish, ACU Ballarat Campus)

Lesson Topic: Subitizing, matching numerals
with quantities and grouping numbers

Year Level: Prep
Date: 1.05.12

Lesson duration: 1 hour

Mathematical Focus: Subitizing, matching numerals with quantities and grouping numbers
VELS Learning Focus:
As students work towards the achievement of Level 1 standards in Mathematics, they manipulate
and play with objects to develop links between their immediate environment, everyday language
and mathematical activity.
In Number, students manipulate and group physical objects and drawings to develop basic
understanding of the concepts of number and numerals. They group objects into sets (collections)
and form simple correspondences (relations) between two sets; for example, in sharing pencils
among students. They learn to count the number of objects up to 20 and relate the number
counted to the use of a numeral. They describe and place objects in order such as first, second and
third. They model addition by putting groups of objects together and counting the combined set
and they model subtraction by moving apart groups of objects.

Mathematics dimension: Number
At Level 1, students form small sets of objects from simple descriptions and make simple
correspondences between those sets. They count the size of small sets using the numbers 0 to 20.
They use one-to-one correspondence to identify when two sets are equal in size and when one set
is larger than another. They form collections of sets of equal size. They use ordinal numbers to
describe the position of elements in a set from first to tenth. They use materials to model addition
and subtraction by the aggregation (grouping together) and disaggregation (moving apart) of
objects. They add and subtract by counting forward and backward using the numbers from 0 to
20.
When Working mathematically, students undertake activities and play to develop skills in making
correspondences (for example, games such as Memory and activities such as matching students
with their birth months). They create and explore number patterns using counters or other objects.
They take risks by making and exploring conjectures relating to numbers, patterns, shapes and
measurements (for example, the bigger the object the heavier it is or the next shape in a
sequence will be ). Students work with calculators to check the results of simple addition and
subtraction. They draw and copy simple shapes and patterns by hand and also by using a
computer drawing package.

VELS Level: 1
Dimension(s):
Number
Level standards:
At Level 1, students form small sets of objects from simple descriptions and make simple
correspondences between those sets. They count the size of small sets using the numbers 0 to
20. They use one-to-one correspondence to identify when two sets are equal in size and when
one set is larger than another. They form collections of sets of equal size. They use ordinal
numbers to describe the position of elements in a set from first to tenth. They use materials to
model addition and subtraction by the aggregation (grouping together) and disaggregation
(moving apart) of objects. They add and subtract by counting forward and backward using the
numbers from 0 to 20.

Australian Curriculum (AC)
Year level: Foundation
Content strand: Number and Algebra
Sub-strand: Number and Place value
Proficiency strand(s): Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning
Content description(s):
Number and Place Value
Establish understanding of the language and processes of counting by naming numbers in
sequences, initially to and from 20, moving from any starting point
Connect number names, numerals and quantities, including zero, initially up to 10 and then
beyond
Subitise small collections of objects
Compare, order and make correspondences between collections, initially to 20, and explain
reasoning
Represent practical situations to model addition and sharing

Background to the students current learning:
The students understand/know already:
Count by ones
More and less in a group
Location
Pattern
Ordinal number
Ordering numbers from smallest to largest
One to one correspondence
Can subitize some 1 digit numbers

The students understand/can do mathematically:
Count by ones to 25
Understands that there is more or less in a group of objects without having to re-count them all
Understands behind, next to and in front
Can copy a pattern
Can make conjectures The next colour in the patter will be...
Can state the 3
rd
and 5
th
object in a pattern
Order number 1-digit numbers from smallest to largest
Can subitize some 1-digit numbers

Learning Objectives/Outcomes:
Mathematics content/concept/idea learning outcome
At the end of this lesson, the students will demonstrate understanding of:
Numerals and their quantities.
Subitizing (instant recognition)
Partitioning

Mathematics strategies/processes/ways of working and thinking mathematically outcome
The students will be able to:
Connect number names, numerals and quantities, including zero, up to ten
Subitize numbers from 0 - 10
Understand that although a group of objects may change how they are grouped the number still
remains the same (partitioning).

Assessment Strategies:
Activity 1: Through the use of focused observation I will watch to see if the students can say the
number of dots that are on the dot plates without having to count them (automatic recall), these
observations will be recorded through the use of anecdotal notes.
Activity 2: I will collect a written statement from the group that convinces us that their tens train
is the longest. Each idea that is shared should be recorded and named so that I can see who
inputted to their discussion. As well as focused observation whilst roving this will be recorded
on my observation rubric for individual students listening for what the children are contributing
and their explanations for their longest tens train.
Activity 3: The students will leave all of their representations of the numbers on their table and I
will take photos of each students work. Allowing me to have time to reflect and further analyse
what they have done. As well as focused observation whilst roving this will be recorded on my
observation rubric for individual students looking for ways that students are grouping objects
and their explanation about why it can be grouped in such a way.

Resources:
Teacher Students
Van De Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2010
text
Pens
Camera
Observation rubric for individual students
Maths focus book for anecdotal notes
Dot plates
Dominoes
Worksheet (Appendix 1)
Pencil
Counters
Paddle pop sticks
Uni-fix blocks
Dot plates

Organisation for learning:
(Brief description of how the room will be organised; include grouping for learning details, e.g.,
pair work, triads, small group, whole class; teacher roving, etc.)
To begin the children will be sitting in a large circle
In the middle of the circle there are different manipulatives such as uni-fix blocks, paddle pop
sticks, counters etc.
For their learning experience activities children are grouped based on their mathematical needs
that are established through the use of the ENRP interview.
The teacher will be roving during the consolidation of the lesson to make sure that each group
understands what they are doing and can take anecdotal notes and observe what each student is
doing.

Key questions to guide learning and prompt student thinking:
Convince me that, that is the longest tens train (Activity 2)
Tell me how you worked out that this number can be represented in all of these ways (Activity 3)
How did you know that this dot plate was this numeral? (Activity 1)
Show me how you worked this out.

Lesson actions:
In the cells below, list the actions that you and the students will do during each phase of the lesson.
e5: ENGAGE, EXPLORE
Lesson introduction (Whole TUNING IN):
Count to 10 as a class
The teacher then hold up the dot plates (only up to 6).
- How many dots did you see?
- What did the pattern look like?
After all the dot plates (up to 6) are shown the children pair up and take turns roll a die and telling
their partner what the number shown is on the die.
Children are then regrouped and shown numbers beyond 6 (up to 10) on the dot plates.
- The same questions are asked: How many dots did you see? What did the pattern look like?
The children have to represent the pattern they saw on the dot plate with counters.
[Dot plate flash activity is adapted from Van De Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2010, p. 131.]

Children are then posed with the question:
- I have 6 objects (pens) can you represent it in a different way (Can be moved around, by using
different materials paddle pop sticks, uni-fix blocks, counters, real objects or by grouping them
differently prompted if needed).
A few children that have represented in different ways explain how they have displayed it

e5: EXPLORE, EXPLAIN, ELABORATE
Development/investigation (Part - INVESTIGATING):
There are three learning experience activities that are set up and the children go to the learning
experience that I have placed them in based on the specific mathematical needs. They are:
1. Dice flash cards
- In pairs children are to flash the dot plates to each other
- Player A flashes the cards and Player B has to match the flash card they saw with the numeral
written on a worksheet and draw the pattern that they saw and group it in one other way if possible.
(Appendix 1)
- Children swap roles after each dot plates are flashed.

2. Dominoes and Dice [adapted from McDonough, 2012]
- Take a set of dominoes and remove dominoes higher than the number 6 on one side (not in total).
- Taking it in turns, each person rolls a die.
- After each roll, team members look for the domino that matches the numbers rolled
- Player who spots the domino takes it, saying the name of the number on the domino and place it in
their pile
- Play continues until all dominoes have been won
During the activity children are asked to explain why they though that the domino they picked up
matched the number on the dice. How did you know straight away that it was ___? Eg: 4

Once all the dominoes have been won the children are then posed with the questions
- Can you make me a tens train? (Meaning the train of dominoes must equal 10).
- Can you make me THE LONGEST tens train?
The children are prompted with questions such as:
- How do you know that is the longest 10s train?
- Can you tell me some rules that I may have to follow if trying to make the longest tens train?
- How are you grouping the numbers so that you are sure that it is the longest tens train?

3. Representing numbers in different ways
Children are given numerals from 0 10 and they have to represent these numbers as their
quantities through different manipulatives.
After children make the numbers they then remove the numerals and ask another person in their
activity how many (Eg: pens) there are.
Children have to explain why they grouped in the way they did

e5: EXPLAIN, ELABORATE, EVALUATE
Plenary and conclusion (Whole REFLECTING and GENERALISING):
Gather all the students together on the floor again
Ask the group of children from:
- Activity one: to stand up and tell the class what they did and each child show the answers drawn in
their books (one example from each child) and explain how they grouped the number and why.
- Activity two: to stand up and share with the class their longest tens train and try and convince us
that it is in 2 minutes.
- Activity three: to stand up and explain their most creative representation of a number.
To sum up the lesson I will have a quick recap saying the dots on the dot plates are one way of
showing us how to represent numbers but from everyone today we have learnt that there are
different ways to recognise numbers and different ways to group them. Using the traditional and
grouping methods dots we are able to quickly identify the numbers without having to count them
all


Post-lesson review and evaluation:

Student Achievement
(Brief description of what students achieved as a result of your lesson. This should link directly to the
objectives/outcomes of the lesson and link back to the evidence that was collected during the lesson.
Expected and unexpected achievements should be described here)


Teacher Effectiveness
(Brief description of elements that were successful in relation to the teachers practice. This should
link directly to evidence of student learning. Reflection on teaching should focus on what will be
further refined in teaching practices or ideas for improving teaching strategies)















Reference List:

Victorian Essential Learning Standards (2007, February 9). English Standards, Retrieved March 28,
2012, from http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/index.html
Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2010). Elementary and middle school
mathematics: Teaching Developmentally (7
th
ed.). Boston: Pearson.
McDonough, A. (2012). Tutorial 9: Further development of counting and place value ideas
Exploring effective use of concrete materials [PowerPoint]. Retrieved from
http://leo.acu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=230487



























From the data collected, write a nutshell statement about each students mathematical
understanding (175 words per student separate nutshell statements). This is not to be merely a
repeat of the growth points but it is to inform the class teacher of your insights (with evidence). In
writing these nutshell statements, utilise your extra notes taken during the interview or ideas that you
now understand about Number learning from the EDMA202 readings.

You are to compose a nutshell statement for each student. Only assign growth points for the
Grade 3/4 student.

Preservice teachers name: Sarah Baker
Student ID: S00118838
Tutorial day and time: Tuesday 4PM

Nutshell statement:
Student A (Pseudonym): Eliza
Year Level: Prep
Eliza could estimate a collection of items however; she needs to consolidate her counting of numbers
from 25 and beyond. She was able to correctly count by ones in other counting tasks and was able to
state a number before and after 56 as well as identifying one group as more. Eliza showed that she
has developed an understanding of location, pattern and ordinal number, as she was able to place
items beside, behind and in front of as well as clearly showing and explaining how and why the
pattern continued the way it did. Eliza was able to understand the cardinality of a number (the last
number tells you the total amount in that group). She matched some numerals to quantities and she
was able to order 1-digit numbers as well as objects from smallest to largest. Eliza was able to
actively construct meaning of one-to-one correspondence (one number represents one object). Eliza
was able to subitize (instantly recognise a quantity of) some numbers.

[Word Count: 165]












The reason why I interviewed a grade 5 student not a grade 3 or 4.
My school community accidentally gave me a grade five student although I did specify that it was to
be a grade 3 or 4 student. I conducted the test and then after talking with the student it came to my
attention that she was in grade 5. I checked with Andrea and she said that as long as the child still
needed specific need then it was fine.

Nutshell statement
Student B (Pseudonym): Clarissa
Year Level: Grade 5
Clarissa could estimate a collection of items and count them. When counting by 5s from x she has a
preference to count by ones. Clarissa is able to recognise patterns and articulate how she knew what
number was missing and is able to recognise and pronounce 5- digit numbers. She has automatic
recall of addition and subtraction questions and can mentally calculate the sum of 2 digit numbers
using a Partitioning strategy (adding the tens first then the ones). Clarissa uses different strategies
such as fact families (that is that 5 + 3 = 8), doubles (4 + 4 = 8), commutativity (2 + 19 can also be
19 + 2) and building to the next 10 (27 + 10 is 30 and 7 more) when it comes to working our addition
and subtraction problems involving 1 and 2-digit numbers. Clarissa recalled some multiplication and
division questions when they were worded however she is yet to instantly recall multiplication
problems when verbally said (3 times 10).



[Word Count: 166]














Growth points reached:

Domain Growth point
(number)
Growth point (in words)
Counting
4 Counting from 0 by 2s, 5s and 10s
Can count from 0 by 2s, 5s and 10s to a given
target
Place Value
4 Reading, writing, interpreting, and ordering
numbers beyond 1000
Can read, write, interpret, and order numbers
beyond 1000
Addition & subtraction
strategies
5 Derived strategies (near doubles, adding 9,
build to next ten, fact families, intuitive
strategies)
Given an addition or subtraction problem,
strategies such as near doubles adding 9, build
to next ten, fact families, intuitive strategies are
evident
Multiplication &
division strategies
3 Abstracting multiplication and division
Solves multiplication and division problems
where objects are not all modelled or perceived















Informed critique of the lesson:
The reason I chose to focus on subitizing and seeing patterns was because being able to recognise
numbers without having to count all of them and knowing the different ways to group numbers are
valuable life skills.
Many children learn to recognise patterned sets of dots on standard dice due to many games they
have played, therefore I created many games that use the traditional grouping of dots (as shown on a
dice) as well as the other ways to represent the same number. (Van De Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams,
2010, p. 129).

Van De Walle et al., (2010) states that multiple representations help support relational understanding
and this is why I decided that the children needed to see the real life objects and the represent it in
their own way which a few children shared with the class.

Every classroom contains a range of student abilities and different backgrounds and for this reason I
decided to have different learning experiences to cater for the specific mathematical needs (Van De
Walle et al., 2010).

The learning experiences were conducted in groups because allowing students to collaborate on task
provides support and challenges, increasing their chance to communicate about mathematics and
building understanding (Van De Walle et al., 2010, p. 67).

The reason that I gathered all the students back on the floor is because as students describe and
evaluate solutions to tasks, share approaches, and make conjectures, learning will occur in ways that
are otherwise unlikely to occur (Van De Walle et al., 2010, p. 42). Students begin to take ownership
of ideas and develop a sense of power in making sense of mathematics (Van De Walle et al., 2010, p.
42).
A good assessment strategy provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate how they
understand essential concepts (Van De Walle et al., 2010). The class discussion acts as a way of
assessing the students understanding and allowing the students to show the class their understanding.
I used focussed observation as a method of assessment because information that may have gone
unnoticed is suddenly visible and important and can be used to plan future lessons and give feedback
to parents and child (Van De Walle et al., 2010).




Reference List:
Van De Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2010). Elementary and middle school
mathematics: Teaching Developmentally (7
th
ed.). Boston: Pearson.