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composing/decomposing numbers/skip counting
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A kindergarten standard in my state is “compose and decompose numbers up to 10.” That basically means to break a number into as many sets as possible, such as: 6 can be six groups of one, two groups of three, a group of six and a group of zero, a group of five and a group of one, etc. I probably won’t cover this for several months, but I’m already wondering how to do it. Any ideas?
I would also like to introduce skip counting at the end of kindergarten, although it’s a first grade skill. I’ve read the article on guiltfreehomeschooling.com, but I’d like several ideas in case I have to try several approaches before it works.
Thanks,
Karen
MUS will teach skip counting and while they don’t call it composing and decomposing numbers – they do begin to teach that in the Primer, and the blocks they use naturally lend themselves to that understanding.
Are you required to test for that as a homeschooler? Or are these the public school standards for your state?
Rebekah
I’m not required to test in MS; I’m just using the state standards as a guide. I’m not using a formal math curriculum at this point.
Karen
Games that use dice and/or two-sided counters are a really great way to teach those skills. Just make up your own or look for ideas in books like Games for Math by Peggy Kaye. Children learn the skills much better in a context that makes sense and is fun and relaxing for everyone. HTH
We’ve used popsicle sticks before. I think the idea was in RightStart. We count out how many popsicle sticks we’re going to work with (5, for example), and write that number at the top of a paper or whiteboard. Then we circle it and draw two lines coming out of it, like the sides of a triangle with our number circle at the top point. We draw two more circles at the end of those lines. Then we see how many different ways we can sort our popsicle sticks and write those numbers in the two circles. So they’re always seeing the total number in the set, but also seeing the changing ways to “decompose” it. Does that description make any sense at all?
Sonya,
This may be a dumb question (I know, there are no dumb questions, just dumb answers), but the manipulative of choice at our house is M&Ms. Would they work just as well?
Karen
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