Lesson 3

The purpose of this lesson is for students to compare groups of objects with very different quantities.

Since this is the first activity where students compare the number of objects in groups, the numbers selected allow students to visually determine which groups have more objects and which groups have fewer. Students are introduced to the language “more” and “fewer”, however they are not required to produce this language until a future lesson. As you ask students to compare quantities, vary between using “fewer” and “more”. Because “more” occurs regularly in everyday speech, students may be comfortable with “more” initially, but need many chances to hear “fewer” to describe the number of objects in groups. In this lesson, students can compare groups of objects without counting, but are asked to count to answer “how many” questions. This continues to give students practice counting up to 10 objects and begins working toward counting to compare.

• Each group of 2 needs a bag with 8 to 10 green triangle pattern blocks and 1 to 3 orange square pattern blocks.
• 6 connecting cubes and 2 pattern blocks needed for display.
• 8 orange square pattern blocks and 2 green triangle pattern blocks needed for display.

• Each group of 2 needs a bag of green triangle and orange square pattern blocks from the previous activity.

• Each group of 2 needs 1 connecting cube.
• Gather materials from:
  • Shake and Spill, Stage 1
  • Math Fingers, Stage 1
  • Pattern Blocks, Stages 1-3
  • Picture Books, Stages 1 and 2

Who got to do math today in class and how do you know? Identify the norms or routines that allowed those students to engage in mathematics. How can you adjust these norms and routines so all students do math tomorrow?