Ep: 17 Emergent Counters: Stages of Counters Series Part 1

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When I started teaching, I had the choice of kindergarten, third grade, or fifth

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grade. And I was like, I'm not a math person. I think I'm just gonna do

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kindergarten. I could definitely do kindergarten math, right?

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

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teachers, specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an

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impact in the number sense of their students. There is a trend that I've seen

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going around of teachers asking other teachers what grade they teach and what

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grade they would never teach. So lots of elementary teachers are like, oh I teach

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fifth grade, oh I teach third grade, and when they say what grade would you never

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teach, they say kindergarten. And a lot of times you're like, why? And it's I think

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they think of it as like, oh these kids are so little, they need so much support.

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But when you're actually in kindergarten, they're very capable and you think

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that's kind of what we're gonna work on. The content itself isn't really that

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hard. But if you think about letters in the alphabet, it's actually really hard

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to teach somebody how to read. And in the similar way, it can be really hard to

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teach people how to count, how to count correctly, and how to count accurately in

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a way that will enable them to use that counting knowledge and build a number

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sense so that they can use that information to solve problems, math

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problems, any problems in the future. So as I said, I thought you know what, this

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can be easy. I've got this pattern sorting, counting. I can definitely teach

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this math. And so I'm there working on it and I notice that some kids are just

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having a really hard time learning how to count. Like something that I'm saying is

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just not making sense. And I don't know, and I wasn't sure how to get them from

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this I don't understand what you're talking about, to actually understanding

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the concept of counting and the concept of number. So there started my deep dive

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into early elementary math and how to teach kids how to count. So what I found

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out is there's lots of different stages to counting. So in the next couple weeks,

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I'm going to be going through each of those stages talking to you about what to

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look for and what you can do to help students move from the counting stage

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that they are at to the next counting stage. So counting can definitely be

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tricky. And in a previous episode, I talked about the aspects of number if you

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want to learn more about that. But the aspects of number are knowing the number

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sequence, so the verbal, knowing the quantity. So if I say four, you know how

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many that is, and the symbolic representation. So the squiggle of four

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means those four objects, and you can count that high to know that that's what

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the name of that number is. And when you can develop those together, you can use

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the strategy of counting to solve other problems. So the first stage of counting

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that you might see is called an emergent counter. An emergent counter is a

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little one, a student, who might be getting stuck on number words or sequences.

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They might have a hard time matching numbers to objects and identifying the

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number symbols and knowing what that quantity represents. So if you're working

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with a student and you ask them to count something for you, you might see students

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skipping numbers in the number sequence. So they might say one, two, six, four, ten,

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and so on and so forth. You might see them saying more than one number when

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counting objects. So if I have three objects and they get to the third, they might go

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three, four, five instead of just saying one, two, three. You might also kind of

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see them have, I call it the hover finger, where they just kind of move their

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finger on top of the things that they're counting, but they're not actually

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matching a numeral to a value. You might also see that they're not yet familiar

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with common dot patterns, like the ones that you might see on a dice. If you're

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seeing students as emergent counters, there are some things you can do to

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support them in kind of solidifying that and moving to the next stage. So the

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first thing that they will need to practice, well not the first thing, but

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one of the things they'll need to practice is the number sequence to be

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able to count high enough to know what the quantity of the collection that

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you're trying to have them count is. So in a previous episode, I talked all about

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things you can do for rope counting and that would be really helpful to look

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back on, as well as some activities you can do for one-to-one correspondence to

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help kids with the number sequence. So quickly lots of movement and counting

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movement songs, counting songs, that kind of thing can really help students

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learn the number sequence. The next thing they'll need to work on is developing

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one-to-one correspondence. So ways that you can work on that, especially if

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they're just emergent counters, is just kind of having them match different

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quantities together to understand if I have one over here, you need one over

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there, and there's lots of ways that you can do that. You can use cards, you can

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use dice, you can have them just put things on top of others. This is also a

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really great opportunity to bring in a lot of play. If you have a play kitchen,

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you might say, oh I need to set the table for five of my friends, what will we need?

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So for each friend, they would need to get a plate, a cup, and then they're

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starting to match, okay one person needs one cup, needs one fork, or whatever

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you're playing, each person will need one thing, and that can also help them kind

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of understand the concept of one-to-one correspondence. Kids also really love

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stories, so you might use a themed counting mat, I will link some down in

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the description, and have them create stories around numbers and around

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counting. So maybe you have a space scene and they have little astronaut

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counters, and you might say okay five astronauts are in the rocket going to

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space, can you get out five astronauts, and then they can work on counting five,

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and that's something you can do in small groups. So if you have a group of students

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who are emergent counters and needing extra practice, that's a great way that

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you can kind of monitor all of them at the same time. If you don't necessarily

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have a play kitchen or have enough for everybody to be playing at the same time,

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that's something you can also do to support your emergent counters. And while

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working on that, take opportunities to do a lot of repetition of the numbers, and

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matching the quantity to a numeral. And I don't necessarily mean having kids just

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sit there and you know copy five a million times on a worksheet, that's not

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what I'm saying, just kind of making it meaningful for them. So if I'm setting my

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table again with five kids, I might have a number five card out, be like okay, this

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is the number five, I have five friends. So with these five friends I need to get

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my five plates, my five forks, my five cups. And then they can start to kind of

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put those things together, the number sequence, the quantity, and the written

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numeral. And something that can be really helpful for students at this point is

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for them to kind of keep track or set goals for their accounting. Now, especially

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at the beginning of the year, they might not even know what goal they're working

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on. So this is where it can be really helpful to bring in a visual goal setting

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chart or sheet so kids can know what it is that they're working on. I will put a

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link in the show notes to examples of this and kind of how to use a goal

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setting sheet. But this can be really helpful for motivating students into

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wanting to learn how to count. And these goal setting sheets are not

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necessarily for the whole class to see where everybody is. It's really a

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chance for that student to be able to reflect on their own learning and know

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what they're working towards with you. And that's something that you guys can

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keep checking on and growing on. And positive momentum in those little goals

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helps kids keep going and want to accomplish the next goal and the next

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goal. So it's really setting them on a trajectory of I don't know this yet, but

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I'm going to learn and I'm gonna have fun while I'm doing it. Because especially

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in kindergarten with an emergent counter, if you have emergent counters in

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kindergarten, it should be fun. They're still kids. They're little. I really love

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to see kids having fun and especially in math math is definitely a place where

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kids can have a lot of fun. We want them to keep that love of math and love of

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learning throughout the year and beyond. So this was emergent counters. Students

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who don't yet know the number sequence might still be still having trouble with

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one-to-one correspondence and might have trouble remembering the numeral

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symbols, which can often be the trickiest part for them to learn. So next week, I'll

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move on to the next stage. If you have a minute you've been enjoying the podcast,

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I would love if you can leave a review to let me know what you're liking, what

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you'd like to see from me next. I also have a link in the show notes to a Google

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form. If there's an episode I did that you'd like more information on, maybe like

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a part two, you can leave me all of the suggestions at the Google form in the

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link in the show notes. Until next time, keep counting everyone!