Comparing Two Groupd Of Objects - Help!

[Guest]

Hi Folks

Yet again getting myself in a real state about the calculating stepping stone 'Compares two groups of objects, saying when they have the same number'. I think that this is extreemly hard for a 3-4 year old to achieve especially when the guidence states they have to SAY when they have the same number. Can anyone out there help me with examples of what children have said or done to achieve this in your settings? or any simple ways that you assess it. We are good at saying when there are more in a group, not so good on when there is less but hopeless on when they groups have the same. I have a wide range of ability within the nursery (39 each session and 3 staff) but when filling in our new Foundation Tracker ( Sheffield LEA) still didn't feel confident about even putting in working towards.

Thanking you all in anticipation and a belated Happy New Year

Anne ( Zambonie)

[Guest]

Hi

We have used fruit at snack time. 3 oranges, 3 apples etc.

[dublinbay]

We have done the same as fancy full, using food at snackbar.

We have also used different coloured trains and cars. Used laminated cards with different numbered shapes on them (3 heart shapes/3 circles) - children make that number of shapes using dough and compare.

Compare bears.

Wooden bricks.

Outside when parking up the wheeled toys, eg. 2 scooters, 2 bikes.

Thats all I can think of now - too tired - late night studying/on here!!

Hope something helps.

[Guest]

Just to say thank you for the ideas. I will putting some of them into action next week. Anne

[Guest]

just to add whilst carrying out suggested or similar activities ensure all staff know to consistently use the terminology 'SAME' in many sentences which are used within lots of familiar contexts during the childrens daily routine/activities. ie: during song time, imagine you are all singing ten little fingers and all the children have their hands up, adult to say "ooh look, we are all holding ten fingers up, we all have the same, has anyone got just 9 or 8 fingers....no, we all have the same, ten fingers each" (emphasising the word same), and also loudly praise any child that uses the term 'same' the others will soon pick up on this opportunity for acclaim

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Thanks Peggy for that advice. I think that this is one of the biggest problems ensuring that all staff are all 'singing from the same book'. We are constantly having discussions about how we interpret the stepping stones and then we then confirm with the F2 staff that they are interpreting in the same way as us. It's a good job they are only across the corridor!

Anne