Concrete Activities

These are classroom activities that can be used to help students develop the thinking strategy that you wish to have them learn.  The activities are intended to be quick and easy.  They are meaningful activities that will reinforce the thinking strategies in the lessons.  They may be used at any time and may be repeated as often as needed.

Example

Count On Activity:

As children begin to add, they often count all of the objects. If they count on to add 1, 2, and 3, children have an easy way to answer 51 of the 100 addition facts they need to learn. After they learn the zero generalization, n + 0 = n, they have an easy way to answer 64 facts. With a little practice, students are able to quickly answer nearly two-thirds of the addition facts.

To help them learn to count on, create situations where the parts to add are known, but they can’t see the larger part. For example, show 8 objects. Ask how many there are, then cover them. Now add 2 more and ask how many there are inall. Have the students explain, “Think 8, …, then count 9, 10.”