Ep 4: One to One Correspondence Strategies and Activities

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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. When I was first interviewing for my first teaching job, I had the option

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of a kindergarten position, a third grade position, or a fifth or sixth grade position. I don't really

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remember which. And all of these positions were Spanish immersion. So that meant that I was responsible

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for teaching math and science to my students in Spanish, and my partner teacher would teach

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language, arts, and social studies in English. So only math and science. And me myself, growing up,

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I did not consider myself a math person. I was really not confident in being able to teach

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other people how to do math. So in my mind, I was like, well, at least if I do kindergarten,

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the math's not that hard, right? They're just like counting and patterns and sorting and that kind

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of thing. So I should be okay, right? Right? That was my thinking. Come to find out that was definitely

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not the case. And teaching those foundational number sense skills is a lot more complex and

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nuanced than I originally anticipated. So joke was on me. But that led me here to you all to

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hopefully give you a place to start, unlike when I was just kind of pulling at straws, hoping something

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stuck and that I could help these kids in some way. I understood what the skills were that my

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students needed to know. But I don't think I realized how difficult it would be for some of my

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students to pick up those concepts that we as adults just find so easy, like what do you mean

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counting is hard? Of course, you know how to count one, two, three, you count the objects like that's

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it. But for some of our students who this is their first school experience, counting is hard.

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And it takes a long time and a lot of practice for them to really get good at it. And because it was

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so far removed for us, we don't realize that. And I feel like that was definitely something that I

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noticed when I started working in kindergarten teaching only math and science. One of the biggest

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things that I noticed my students having trouble with, but it was so foundational was counting.

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And when I say counting, I don't just mean one, two, three, because counting involves the number

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sequence, one to one correspondence, and being able to remember how many things you counted

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once you're finished counting. And then from there, remembering the numeral or the squiggle that goes

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along with the number that you just said. So when you really think about it, it is a very complex

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skill and hard for some students to understand. So I'm going to be doing a deep dive into all of

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those different aspects of counting and number that I found really helpful when trying to support

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my students in learning these skills and developing a strong foundation of number sense. Today's topic

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and the first in the series is one to one correspondence. One to one correspondence is

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the skill of being able to count one object as you say the number. And you can either touch it

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like with dice or move it when you're counting actual objects. So when your students are developing

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one to one correspondence, they need to be able to keep track of what they're doing, where they're

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pointing to if they're not actually touching anything that they're counting. A lot of times

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when kids come in and don't necessarily have a lot of previous school experience, they can keep

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one to one correspondence in the three to six range. And then comes the hover finger, I call it

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the hover finger, because you'll see the kids start one, two, three, and then four, five, six,

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their number sequence might be off and the finger just kind of hovers over what they're counting

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instead of actually touching it. And that is a very hard skill to break. So there are some strategies

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I like to teach my students to really help them with the concept of one to one correspondence,

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not necessarily the number sequence, because that's something else that can trip them up,

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but just the concept of one to one correspondence. So one number or one word goes with each object.

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The first strategy I like to teach the kids is the move it strategy. So if there is something that

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can be moved when you're counting, I'm encouraging them to move it. So if I have a handful of cubes,

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we'll take one cube, move it to a completely different pile, and count one, and then go back

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to the original pile, and move it count two, so on and so forth. So even if their number sequence

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isn't as high as the pile that they have, they're practicing the skill of moving an object one at a

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time and counting it. I often like to encourage kids to move things away into a different pile,

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because if they're not moving it, it's easy for them to count something twice or miss one. So this

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way we know that I've counted these objects and these ones I still have to count. So the move it

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strategy is the first one that I teach, and one that I really like to make sure that they are using

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when appropriate. Now there are times where you can't move objects like the pips on a dice,

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or when they're counting their fingers, and I definitely encourage counting with their fingers.

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They are a great tool for all mathematicians. That's when I would use the touch strategy. If

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you're counting the pips on a dice, then you're touching each thing that you're counting, and

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really trying to keep track of it that way moving systematically. So for example, if you are looking

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at the dice face that has the five on it, you would start maybe at the top left and work like

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you're reading like one, two, then top right, the middle one, four, five. Instead of kind of bouncing

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all over the place, same thing to keep track of what you're doing so you know how many is on that

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dice face. Now the skill of knowing those dice face very quickly and instantaneously is subitizing,

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and that will be a topic I will be covering very soon after they've moved the objects that they're

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doing or touched it. If they might think that there's any confusion and even if there's not,

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I really like to encourage the kids to double check what they counted. It's easy to miss something,

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especially if you're touching things instead of moving them. So double checking is a strategy I

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really like to throw the kids, let them know that good mathematicians will double check their work.

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So the strategy is moving it, touching it, and double checking. Strategies can be a really

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helpful way to give students an entry point, but a strategy isn't going to work if you don't actually

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apply it. So one of the biggest things about all of these math concepts is that your students need

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a lot of time to practice them. So I'm going to give you some ideas now of how you can practice

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one-to-one correspondence, not necessarily with numbers and numerals, just really the concept

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of one-to-one correspondence. Whenever possible, especially with young kids, I want to give them

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the opportunity to play. I am sure I'm not the only one who feels like kindergarten should be more

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of a social time than it is, and we have been, we have lots of standards to cover that might not

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necessarily be appropriate for our age group, but here we are. I like to make things feel like play

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whenever possible, and just that is a great way to start with one-to-one correspondence. Let's say

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that they are playing in the kitchen or even passing out supplies to the other students at their

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table. They need to make sure that each student has a pencil, each student has a glue stick, or if

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they're playing in the kitchen that each person who is eating together in quotes gets a plate,

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gets food, gets a fork, gets all of those things. So just matching one person with one object is a

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great way to practice one-to-one correspondence, and I try to think of a lot of games that just

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focus on that. There are these giant playing cards. The ones I'm thinking about specifically,

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I got at five below, and they just have giant gummy bears on them. So one of the first stations I had

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my students do who are working on one-to-one correspondence is they got to pick one of those

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giant cards and match one of their bear counters to each gummy bear, and they absolutely loved it.

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Like it was the wrong size. They like gummy bears. They like the bears in general. So that's a really

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quick, simple station that your kids can do, but they definitely don't have to be those cards. It

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can be any cards or anything where they are matching one object to whatever the design is. So it could

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just be dice faces, and they're matching that. Both of those will help. Now has anybody else's

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students been obsessed with puppets? Like obsessed with puppets. So I was like, I'm going to leverage

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this how I can in this classroom. So I created these puppet task cards. So it's just a picture of a

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puppet, and it has different designs on, and the kids have to try to recreate the design on the puppet

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picture to the actual real puppet. And because it's a puppet and it's colorful, again, the kids

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enjoyed it, and it was really simple for the kids to do independently, and they got to practice just

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the concept of one-to-one. If your students are kind of understanding the concept of one-to-one

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correspondence, but are having trouble with the number sequence or matching a numeral to a value,

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that would be a great time to work with them in a small group to practice that skill. And 10 frames

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are really, really great for that. Because again, there's one space, so you put one thing in one

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space, and you can support them with the number sequence, if that's with stripping them up or

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starting to match a numeral to a value. So I hope those math center ideas were helpful, and the

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strategies, again, were move the object that you're counting, touch the object that you're counting,

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if you can't move it, and double check your work. I will have all of this written out in a blog post

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that I will link to in the show notes. Hope these strategies help, and I will catch you next time.