Math Matters in February!
Kindergarten and First Grade Number Talks
Welcome to the World of Number Talks!
Number Talks in Kindergarten and First Grade include rekenreks, dot images, and five and ten-frames.
A rekenrek is simply a number rack made from two rows of ten beads. There are five red and five white beads grouped together in each row. Students use rekenreks to show quantities in different ways. For example, the teacher might show 5 by pulling over 5 beads on the top and 0 beads on the bottom. The students may then be asked to show 5 in a different way. One student may show 1 on the top and 4 on the bottom while another student decides to show 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom. Composing and decomposing numbers helps students with future work in addition and subtraction!
Dot images also allow students to see numbers in different ways. In the visual below (center), students may start by counting all the dots to make 7. With experiences, students will find other ways to compose 7. They may count on from 5 by saying "5, 6, 7"! Another student may visualize moving the center dot from the left over to the right to make 4 + 3 = 7. Going even further, a student may move the two sets of two beads from the left to the right to make 1 and 6 which is still 7. Again, this is a necessary prerequisite skill for mental math strategies.
The double ten-frame helps students to automatically make a friendly ten. When we take ten ones and make a ten out of it, we call that unitizing. In the example below (right image), we see ten and 4 more which is 14. In many of the double ten frames that the students see, they learn to move dots around in their mind to make tens. Doing so allows them to add more efficiently. For example, they may see 9 dots in the first frame and 7 dots in the second frame. By moving one dot from the second frame to the first frame, the students show that 9+7 = 10+6. It is easier to add 10+6 so we consider this an efficient method.