Counting Connections

I love choral counting! This is confirmed every time I participate in one in a classroom.  It doesn't matter if it is a Kindergarten or 5th grade.  Choral counting gets everyone thinking--including the teacher!

One piece to choral counting that I have found to be important is the connections that can be made between different choral counts.

For example, this was an eye-opening choral count for some 2nd graders.  We began with the confidence builder of counting by 5s.  We broke it down by looking for patterns.  A lot of good talk and discussion here, but it really kicked up a notch when I challenged them to count by 5s off-decade.  We began slowly, but then the students were able to idenify patterns and get going.  We looked for patterns in this count, too, and then I pulled the two counts up side by side.  The ahas! that the students had were quite exciting!  So important for students to make these connections.

I did another one recently in a 5th grade classroom where we counted by 21s.

Students stepped up to the challenge of counting by 21s and looking for patterns.  But the real excitement came when I asked them to do another count by 2.1.  (I had copied the first count onto a clean page before we had found its patterns.) Students kind of gasped, but then I pulled up the clean screen of our previous count.  They counted by 2.1 as I added decimal points into the numbers.  When we were done, we made connections between the two counts and place value.  We also discussed what would have happened if I had asked them to count by 210.  These place value concepts were things that they "knew," but when we put it on paper, it really clicked for them!

Because I am in and out of classrooms, I did these "double-counts" in one session making the choral count a little longer than usual.  I certainly think that it would work for a teacher to do one one day and the second one the next day.  The importance is the time taken to connect the two counts, and following-up in later days with similar counts in order to help cement the counts into students' minds.

Beginning with choral counting is your first step.  Give one a try!  Once you get past that hurdle, you will feel more comfortable moving into a double-count!

Building Number Sense through Choral Counting

Another routine that we can use in our classrooms to help our students better understand number is called Choral Counting. This routine, as modeled above, is done whole class, and can be differentiated by grade level.

It is a deceptively easy routine to put in place; however, the teacher's intentionality in planning can make it more powerful and effective than if it is just done at the spur of the moment.

Counts can range from Counting by 1s to counting by 3/8.  The beauty is that you can decide what is best for your students.

When planning a choral count, the teacher should decide what s/he wants to count by and then and then whether that count will go forwards or backwards.  After those decisions have been made, it is important for the teacher to determine how the numbers will be recorded. From left to right? From top to bottom?  How many numbers in each row or column?  The recording of the numbers is important in highlighting the patterns that can be found in the counting sequence.  Stenhouse Publishers has a free online tool that you can use to help with your planning of your choral count.  It is accessible here.

After the students and you complete the choral count and recording of the numbers, then the students begin the process of noticing and wondering.  What patterns do they see?  What will come next in the count sequence? How do the patterns they see help them to know what comes next?

As your students become more adept at this routine, you might decide to have them do the count while including a clap or a stomp on benchmark number.  "Stomp on every multiple of 10." "Clap when we reach a whole number." "Snap when the number is even." These little ideas may enable your students to find patterns more easily.

If you are interested in learning more about Counting Collections, consider purchasing this book from Stenhouse Publishers.  

Let me know if I can help with implementing choral counts in your classroom!

Using Counting Collections in the Classroom

Have you tried counting collections? 



Counting Collections: Kindergarten - a common core classroom friendly exercise from Luna Productions on Vimeo

This activity is a great opportunity for our primary students to gain a better understanding of counting and number, and with some modifications, I think it could be used, at some level, in the upper elementary classroom as well.

You will need to begin by creating some collections.  In the link above, they give some examples of objects you can gather for counting, but I'm sure you can find other items around your home or classroom that will work as well.  You will probably want them to be smaller in size so that storing them doesn't become much of an issue.  Hopefully, you can find other teachers in your classroom to join you, and then you can find a common space to share your different collections. This handout will also be able to help guide you as you plan for your collections and fine-tune the activity.

I think that these would be a great way to kick off your math habits to start the year.  You would be able to learn a lot about your students by interviewing and talking to them as they work on organizing and counting their collections.  

For older grades, I have thought that you could have them count objects in multiples or fractions to get a total.  You could also have them count by sets.  Packs of items...Can they count by 24 or 36? What if you offer them decks of cards? Can they count by 52s?  While they may not be fluent as they move through these unusual multiples, it will certainly aid them in developing mental math strategies.  Introducing fresh concepts through counting offers all students an access point, so students can practice new concepts using the math routine of counting.

Here is an example of a Counting Collection in a 3rd grade classroom:
Counting Collections: Third Grade - a common core classroom friendly exercise from Luna Productions on Vimeo.


Counting collections can adjust as your students develop their number sense. It is a routine that will allow students to think about better ways to organize, more efficient ways to count, and concepts of number. It can be used all year long.

What do you think about this?  How can you make it work in your classroom?  Please share your ideas!

I'd love to join in on the fun as your class does a counting collection!  If you are okay with that, let me know when you think you would like to do one, and I will see if I can join you.

Start with Counting

Counting is usually our introduction to numbers. From an early age, we heard people around us counting.  It is such an important skill, yet sometimes we look past it as too primary.

After the NCTM Regional Conference last fall, I came back with tons of ideas I wanted to put into action.  One of the biggest concepts I decided to do more of is counting.  I often work with students who struggle with basic number sense, and since that conference, we begin nearly every day with counting.  Sometimes we count by 1s, sometimes we count backwards, sometimes we count off decade....you get the picture.

I always try to use visuals/concrete objects as we are doing our counting, but sometimes my fingers won't move fast enough to keep up with the students pace.  Recently, I found this AWESOME site full of math visual videos that we can use as we count.  

Using these visuals and asking questions about what is happening is important to helping our students gain a better understanding of numbers.  This link takes you to the counting and place value videos, but Berkeley Everett has created visuals to go with many other math concepts.  Using these videos will really help us to make our math more visual!

Counting isn't just for our littles!  It is a great idea for all classrooms to begin class with counting.  Counting by multiples, fractions, whatever will strengthen your class's thinking and understanding of number!