We have been doing lots of work around the number 5, working on recognising small amounts without counting (subitising). Today, Miss J told some stories about dinosaurs playing in the garden: some were on the trampoline, some were in the flower garden and some were on the picnic blanket. We had to look and see how many were in each part of the garden, and calculate how many altogether. Then some of the dinosaurs hid and we had to work out how many were hiding.
We used the 5 frame to help us. A 5 frame is a great way for children to gain an understanding of what numbers look like and how they are made up of other numbers.
How many on the trampoline? How many in the flower garden? How many on the picnic blanket? How many altogether? Someone said “2 and 2 is 4 and then 1 more is 5” – great calculating!We can represent the dinosaurs on the 5 frame by drawing them. I can draw 2 on the trampoline, 2 in the flower garden and then 1 more on the picnic blanket. This fills up the 5 frame, so there must be 5 altogether.This time, there was 1 dinosaur on the trampoline and 4 on the picnic blanket. 4 add 1 more is 5. Again, we can draw the dinosaurs as spots in the 5 frame.How many on the trampoline? How many in the flower garden? How many on the picnic blanket? Some are missing…do you know how many? Lets look at the 5 frame. There are only 3 dinosaurs on the picnic blanket. Can you see on the frame how many are missing? Yes, we know 3 and 2 are friends to make 5, so there are 2 missing!How many dinosaurs? So how many are missing? Can you see on the 5 frame how many are hiding? That’s right, there are 4 spaces left so there must be 4 hiding! 1 and 4 make 5 altogether.
We also have lots of opportunities to practise our counting and subitising in Independent Learning, playing games and using resources.
Recognising groups of objects in a game .Counting Numicon in socks.
