Partitioning Year K

Summary This activity is for very young children. It was devised four year olds to encourage partitioning collections, recording the parts that make the total and writing numerals. It also opens the door to addition and subtraction. Suitable for threading. Materials One Poly Plug set per table Paper or plastic bowl (or similar) Recording sheet similar to the one shown Coloured marker pens (yellow/blue) Acknowledgement This activity was devised by Helen Abbott, Neerabup Primary School, Western Australia, when teaching a Kindy class of 4-year-olds. Kindy is part of the school system in that state but the children only attend for part of the week.

Procedure Children cup 5 plugs in their hands and shake them. They drop them into the bowl. If any land sideways they are turned over to whichever colour the child wants. Children record the number of blue and the number of yellow. At first this can be by drawing. Later teachers or helpers might scribe sentences like 3 and 2 make 5. Later still this can become 3 + 2 = 5 and the calculator can be introduced as a recording tool too. How many different ways can we do it? What happens if we change the number of plugs?

Content addition facts to 10 complementary addition conservation of number counting equations: creating/solving numeral recognition properties of number recording - calculator recording - written sorting & classifying subitising visual and kinaesthetic representation of number writing numerals

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