Math Integration in the Forest (K/1)

Do you ever wonder how math shows up in our K/1 classroom? Read below for a few examples of the many ways that math is integrated into our forest curriculum this spring.

Math during the "Handwashing Train"

Early in the year when the children lined up to wash hands before snack, we would count together to see how many kids were in the line. As the year progressed this morphed into a "count off" where the first person in line said "one," the second child said, "two" and so on. Later in the year this activity shifted again and we started with the back of the line and counted down to one, first speaking all together, and then later as a "count down" with each student saying their number separately.

This spring, we have started to represent the number of children at school as a math problem while the children are lining up for the handwashing train. This is a very low pressure opportunity for children to describe their thinking, and to gain exposure to strategies such as counting on, using "friends to ten" to help make math problems easier, and building on previous math conversations. Here are a few examples of their thinking:

 "There are eleven plus four kids at school today. How many people should be in the handwashing train when we count?"

Joni 15 because, well, I know that 10 and 5 is 15, and 11 is one more than 10, 4 is one less than 5.

Data  I started with 11 and I counted up 4 more and I got 15.

River Last time we had 15 in the line you told us it was 8 plus 7. So if you have 11 and 4 that would be the same [number] because you make the eight 3 numbers higher and the seven 3 numbers lower.

Ezra If you count by 5's you do 5, 10, 15 and that's the same as 10 plus 5, so with 11 you only have to add 4 and you get 15.

Haris I just counted up the line and it's 14.

Sandy  We have one person in the loo right now. When they come out, that will be one more person in line.

Haris  15!

"We have nine plus seven kids at school today. How many people will be in our handwashing train?"

Data  I know that 10 plus 6 is 16, and 9 is one less than 10, and 7 is one more than 6, so 9 plus 7 equals 16.

Tuli  I know that 7 plus 7 is 14, and 9 is two more than 7, so I added 14 plus 2 and got 16.

River I knew last time in the train it was 8 plus 7 equals 15, so this time it's 9 and that's one more than 8, so the number has to be one more than 15, so it's 16!

Ramona  I started with 7 in my brain and I counted up 9 and I got 16.

Rory Fern  Mine is similar to Ramona, but I started with 9 because it's a bigger number and then I counted up 7 more.

Liam I just knew that we have 16 kids in our class and it's an everybody day.

Using Math to determine change in temperature

This spring we are continuing to use the temperatures at drop-off time and pick-up time to talk about 10's and 1's and modeling addition problems based on the change in temperature.

One day our morning question on the message board posed the question: How many degrees will the temperature change today? How do you know?

To get the answer,

Tuli  counted up from 55 to 81.  [Tuli does not appreciate that we only have temperature icons in multiples of 5 and was using a high temperature of 81 in his calculations].

River  counted up by 1's from 55 to 80.

Rowie  first added 5 so that she could start at 60, then counted up by 10's.

Data counted up by 10's (65, 75), and then added 5 more to reach 80.

Liam counted by 5's. "At first I got 50, but I don't think it's that because 55 plus 50 would be over 100. Then I tried again and got 25."

We decided to try out Data's strategy on the board using our magnet icons that represent groups of 10's and 1's. First we represented 55 using five 10's and five 1's. Then as a class we added 10 more. Some children were automatically able to add 10 in their brains, and then we double-checked by counting up by 10's as well. Now at 65, we added 10 more to reach 75. 

Sandy Now we are at 75. How much did we add to 55 so far?

Ramona We added ten plus ten, so twenty.

Sandy Can we add another group of 10 now?

Mira  No, then we would be going too high.

Liam  Yeah, that would be 85.

Joni  We can only add 5 more.

Using cubes to compose and decompose numbers, and to represent mathematical equations.

One morning when there were 13 children at school, we gave each Lumber Prime a tower made up of 13 cubes, and asked them to help us figure out how many ways we could make the number 13. First we asked students to break their towers into two parts, and use those two parts to make an addition problem.  Quickly the children began breaking their towers into more and more pieces to create longer and longer equations. We talked about how the order you add the numbers in will not change the final outcome. Some students were motivated to find the "longest math problem," and Joni emerged victorious by breaking her tower into 13 individual cubes to represent 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=13! 

Writing subtraction problems

One morning we described the number of days of school left as "ten minus two." Volunteers helped to turn these words into a subtraction equation. 

Ruthie shared with the class how she helps herself distinguish between a plus and minus sign. "If you have a plus sign and you take away one of the lines, you get the minus. It's like you are subtracting one of the lines!"

Number Scrolls 

Just after February break, to celebrate the 100th day of school, the Lumber Primes began working on "number scrolls," with the initial goal of writing all of the numbers from 1-100. Now, several months later, many children are still working on these scrolls and excitement is growing! We have children asking to go inside, not because they are uncomfortable or unhappy outside, but because they are so motivated to continue adding numbers to their scrolls. 

Rebecca brought in the number scroll that her daughter Linden made back when she was a Prime several years ago (Linden is now an Upper). Now, quite a few children are hoping to match Linden's final number (2,572), or even continue beyond that number. We are hearing that some students even want to keep working on their number scrolls until they finish Uppers. To celebrate milestones along the way, a few rituals have emerged. Each time children reach a multiple of 100, they perform a special "hundreds dance." When a classmate reaches 1,000, there is a whole-class dance party to mark the accomplishment! This is an entirely child-led endeavor, and students know that when they feel like they are done with their scroll for good, they can stop and add the infinity symbol to show that numbers keep going on forever.

Just last week Rowie surpassed Linden's record and is now at 2,867! Data is close behind with 2,207.

Recently we interviewed the children, asking why they are choosing to keep working on their number scrolls, their goals, and what advice they have for anyone who might be interested in creating their own number scroll.

Sankara  A number scroll is a scroll of numbers! You can go past 100 if you want.

Ramona They are pieces of paper that you can write numbers on. You can go to any number you want. My goal right now is 5,260. You can get to any number you like. When you get to another 100, you do the 100's dance. You put your arm up and say "hundred!" and then you shake like this. When you feel done forever you can write the infinity sign. My advice is: try to get higher than 100 and good luck if you want to try it

River  It's so tempting to get to 1,000!

Isa  I got A LOT! I'm way past 100.

Haris I want to beat Linden, or get to the symbol infinity.

Mira  You can just keep going after you get to 100. When you run out of room you can just get another piece of paper and tape it on and keep going!

Data  I'm at 1,135. My first goal was 1,000. It's so many-- it's ten tens! My next goal is to beat Linden. Then I want to keep going even more. I've only been doing it a short time. I like the challenge and how you get excited when you reach a goal.

Rory Fern  It's really not very tricky or anything. Just make sure you aren't writing the numbers backward!

Amari  I think it's really fun. I can't tell why, but when I'm doing it, it's really fun.

Ruthie  It's like, instead of just a big piece of paper with numbers on it, it's long skinny paper. Sometimes the numbers are hard to write. Babies might think this is a scroll of letters, but it's actually numbers. My advice is to be really focused or you might lose track of the numbers.