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Learning and development areas

Numeracy learning in kindergarten: Counting

The purpose of this professional learning is for teachers to view and reflect on an example of how one teacher supports numeracy learning in kindergarten.

The resources include:

  • Numeracy learning in kindergarten: Counting video.

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Sue Southey
Director/Kindergarten teacher

The activity that we did at group time this morning was around … we’re doing some work around reflection. We’ve just set up our light studio. And so I thought spoons would be an interesting activity for these children to do. And a couple of children had brought spoons earlier this week. So by introducing objects that have similar characteristics, it’s a really nice way to start doing some of that sorting into sets, noticing the attributes and then doing some counting to go with it.

One of the things I deliberately do when we’re doing those sorts of counting activities is I do it the wrong way, because what that does is it really pushes the children to think, hang on, that’s not how it works. So for them to start really thinking much more consciously about what are the rules about counting? And it adds a sense of fun to it too. They really enjoy those activities.

One of the strategies that we try to use is modelling appropriate ways of counting, because it’s actually a skill. So that by getting a child to actually touch and count the objects, it helps reinforce that kinaesthetic, tactile experience as they’re actually saying the words. So that … we use that as … that is the way that we count. We touch and count. And by doing it together, we’re just helping our friend to quantify the objects that we’re trying to count.

Excerpt from class session

Sue

But I’ve got a spoon as well

Child

No.

Child

Yours is not a shiny one.

Sue

Not a shiny one, you’re right. There are 13 shiny spoons. Wow. I wonder how many spoons are not shiny. How could we find out?

Children

Count.

Sue

Okay, let’s count them. Leave them in the rest position. One, nine, seven, three …

Children

No, stop.

Sue

Put up your hand if you can tell me the problem. Have a think. There’s a problem. What is the problem with how I’m counting those spoons? Cross your legs, Justice. Have a think. Pacey, what was the problem?

Pacey

You need to count like this: one, two and then three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Sue

But I was touching each one. I was touching each one. Hang on. Have a listen to Pacey. She’s right.

Pacey

Go like this: one, then like …

Sue

So if I start over here with one. Then what do I do next?

Pacey

Two.

Sue

Two. What’s next?

Pacey

Three.

Sue

What’s next? Help Pacey

Children

Four

Sue

Four, five …

End of class session

Sue

So what happens with children when we form these sets, and we quantify how many objects are in each set, it’s interesting for children to start comparing sets to see which are the larger sets and which are the smaller sets. And it’s actually giving the children a way in to doing that, the skills that they need, the strategies that they need to make those judgments about which set has more and which has less.

Excerpt from class session

Sue

Which is the biggest set?

Child

Those ones.

Sue

Which is the winner?

Sue

Which is the biggest set?

Child

The shiny ones.

Sue

Which one, Zoe?

Zoe

The shiny … this one.

Sue

Yeah, one of those ones.

Zoe

Shiny.

Sue

The shiny ones are the ones that win at the moment. Isn’t that clever?

See also

Last updated:
30 November 2023

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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