Ep. 8 All About Rekenreks

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Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense

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of their students.

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Hello and welcome back to Making Number Sense Makes Sense.

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Today I'm here to talk with you about the Wreck and Wreck.

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Have you ever seen one before?

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The Wreck and Wreck is basically a tool that is great for lots of different things when

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working with kindergarten, first grade, second grade, in moving past counting things one

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by one and starting to unitize, starting to subitize and developing more sophisticated

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counting strategies.

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So let's learn about it.

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So a Wreck and Wreck has two rods with 10 beads each, five red and five white.

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And the setup of the Wreck and Wreck with the 10 and 10 and five and five really helps

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students with a lot of things that we need to be able to be really sophisticated counters

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and move from counting to addition and subtraction strategies on and on and on.

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When introducing a Wreck and Wreck to my kindergarteners, I usually like to wait a little bit until

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they've had a lot of practice counting and really developing their counting number sequence

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and one-to-one correspondence before we move on to a Wreck and Wreck.

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How do you introduce it to your students?

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Well, I usually start by asking them what they notice about it.

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That there's 20 beads, that there's five and five, there's some on the top and some on

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the bottom.

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And very important when using any math tool, I want to give them a chance to really play

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with it, shake it, see what it feels like, move the beads around before it becomes a

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tool.

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They're play out of it, though we still have lots of fun games to play with it.

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After I've introduced it, I like to try and have them show me different numbers.

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Like, oh, can you show me this number?

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Can you show me this number and tell me what they notice about when we move the numbers

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around?

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What it looks like, what it feels like, what the other side looks like, that is not in

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play, all those different things.

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So to use a Wreck and Wreck, I usually like to remember the rhyme white on the right.

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So the white beads belong on the right side and that is the zero position or starting

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position.

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And then from there, the kids slide the beads over.

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Now, like I said, they can slide one by one, but the benefit of a Wreck and Wreck is you

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really try to get them to see, instead of seeing like one, two, three, four, five, actually

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get them to see five and swipe them all at one time so they can start to think of numbers

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as bigger chunks versus one by one.

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The Math Resource Learning Center has a great PDF about Wreck and Wrecks and how to introduce

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them and some activities and lessons you could do with them, and I will have that link for

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you in the description below.

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Now, when students are using the Wreck and Wreck, what you're really looking for is if

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they can start to group numbers together.

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So instead of moving over seven one at a time, they would do five, six, seven, or if they

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can just push seven along the whole time.

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Something that'll really help with that is if they get to use them a lot.

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A lot of visuals, a lot of being able to play with it and see it and start to remember what

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those numbers look like or suputizing, which is one of the great things about a Wreck and

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Wreck, similar to a ten frame that you can suputize that way, is a different way to see

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numbers, a different way to play with them, and a different way to learn to suputize or

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see numbers without counting.

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Because of the structure of the Wreck and Wreck with five red and five white beads altogether

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making ten, it really helps to support an anchor to five and an anchor to ten when kids

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are counting and eventually using addition and subtraction strategies.

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So they can think of those friendly numbers and then from there build on or build backwards

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from it.

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Something else that Wreck and Wreck are really great for is learning about doubles and near

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doubles and what they might look like.

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If your question was eight plus eight and they put eight on the top and eight on the

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bottom, they might start to see that eight is also the same as ten.

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Eight plus eight is also the same as ten plus six is also the same as ten on the top and

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six on the bottom.

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There's lots of different ways that they could see it, which helps them with their fact fluency

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and applying their previous knowledge to new problems, which is what we want.

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We want to develop their number sense so that they can approach any problem that they might

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have.

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Building off of the doubles and near doubles, it's also really helpful to see the different

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ways that kids think about numbers and think about solving problems.

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A lot of times in math people are pigeonholed into thinking there's only one way to do

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everything, but that's just simply not true.

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And lots of kids, depending on their level and how familiar they are with the Wreck and

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Wreck might help them change or think about things in a different way, working with partners,

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working with our partners and just seeing things differently.

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For example, if you are doing nine plus six, some students might need to make the nine

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on the top row and nine on the bottom row to figure out what that was, whereas others

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might be able to start compensating.

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Understanding that nine and ten are really close.

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So instead of moving nine and six, they might move ten and five and start to develop more

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sophisticated counting strategies and addition and subtraction strategies moving into first

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grade and continuing into second grade.

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We've talked about what a Wreck and Wreck is, how to introduce it, and the benefits

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of using a Wreck and Wreck in your classroom.

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Let's dive into some full group, small group, center activities that you can use Wreck and

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Wreck for.

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So the first one kind of goes along with subitizing is quick images.

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To play quick images, you will flash a number really quickly, and then the students either

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have to think about in their head what that might look like or build that number on a Wreck

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and Wreck or whatever you're using for subitizing.

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So in this case, we would be using the Wreck and Wreck cart or your own Wreck and Wreck

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and show them for three to five seconds, put it down and see if they can recreate or figure

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out in their head the number that you showed.

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The next activity could be done small group or full group, and it's called one push two

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pushes.

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So like I said before, the Wreck and Wreck is really great about developing strategies

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that are beyond just counting from one.

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So with one push two pushes, you would give your students a number, for example, seven,

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and have them think about how they might make a seven on their Wreck and Wreck in the least

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number of pushes.

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So just one push to make the number seven.

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So they might discuss like, oh, well, you might have to move it like this.

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Some students might say, oh, I just know five and two is seven.

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So I'm just going to have two white beads and move them over.

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But other students might be like, oh, well, see any five, six, seven, or some might still

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have to count it out in their head to know how many to move over in just one push.

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And then two pushes would be for a double digit number.

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So from 11 to 20, like how can you make the number 12 in just two pushes?

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So for that one, you would try to move 10 and two.

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The next game is something that you can do as a math center or math station.

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It's called pick, build, and cover.

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So the way that you play pick, build, and cover is you pick a Wreck and Wreck card,

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you build it on your Wreck and Wreck, and then find that number on your counting mat.

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And I'll have a link to that below that you can use in your classroom.

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The next game is called spin and slide.

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So for this one, they'll have a spinner that has the Wreck and Wreck's on it, either one

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to 10 or 11 to 20, depending on their counting level.

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And they would spin whatever number it is, and then figure out how they would slide to

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make their Wreck and Wreck match the number.

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And if you want to make it a little more challenging, instead of giving a picture of the Wreck and

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Wreck, you can just do numerals, and then they have to figure out what that numeral

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would look like instead of doing a direct match.

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In the next two games, you can access for free in the link in the description.

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The first one is called spin, count, and cover.

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So for this one, the students have a spinner, and they will spin it and see what number

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they get, and whatever number they get, numeral they get.

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They'll have to find that number on their counting mat and cover it with whatever you

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might have in your classroom.

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And then they keep going until they finish the board.

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And that one also has the version for one to 10 and 11 to 20.

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The last game is called how many combinations can you find?

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And this one has more to do with composing and decomposing numbers.

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So you would either give your students the number that they're working on, or they could

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roll a dice, whatever they need, to figure out which number they're going to be working

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with.

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So for example, if they're working with a number five, they would work with a partner

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or on their own to figure out how many different ways they can make a five on their Wreck and

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Wreck.

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So you can have one student be the top and one student be the bottom, or you can have

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them just working out, see if they could figure it out together, and record their answers

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that they got on their recording sheet, which like I said is available in the link in the

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description.

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That was a lot of information about Wreck and Wreck, and I hope that you found it helpful.

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If you're looking for a digital version of a Wreck and Wreck, I will have that link down

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below that you can access for free, a zero to 20 Wreck and Wreck and a zero to 100 Wreck

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and Wreck that you'll be able to use.

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Again, don't forget to grab your free products in the link in the description.

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And there'll also be a blog post that goes with this as well, if you'd like to see everything

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right now.

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I hope that you found this helpful.

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Make sure to subscribe for more math videos, and I will see you next time.

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And to play quick images, you basically flash something for...