Math Strategy: Modeling Composite Units and Counting by Ones

What is Modeling Composite Units and Counting by Ones?:

Math Strategy: directly modelling groups of numbers and counting all by ones
Math strand: Multiplication - Number Sense and Numeration

English:




French:



Overview:
In the early stages of multiplicative thinking, students need to directly model problems in order to further develop their understanding. When using counting by ones, the student will count out the number of objects required in the group and will repeat this process until they have modeled the number of groups required for the problem. Finally, they count all of the objects in all of the groups from 1.


For example, if asked the product of 3 x 5, the student would count out 3 groups of 5.


Finally, they would count all of the objects by ones.


How this supports student learning:
During the early stages of multiplicative learning, it is imperative for students to have multiple opportunities to develop their understanding of the operations. By using manipulatives to represent problems and physically sorting them into groups they are pushing their thinking from 'one to one' correspondence to a 'many to one' correspondence. This in turn will support students with their understanding of the big idea of unitizing (counting groups instead of individual items).


Where to next
A next step is to model and encourage counting rhythmically so students can make the connection between the total number of objects represented in each composite unit.

Share your classroom experiences with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LKelempro #EngageLK!