Curriculum Guides

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Content Areas: Numeration

Skillss: Match Sets to Numeral

Prerequisites: One-to-One Correspondence

Instructional Practices: Problem Solving, Reasoning

Materials Needed: Legos, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, or other manipulatives; 0-5 die or 4-9 die

Technology: Counters and Sums, Pattern Blocks

Activity:

Children work in pairs. The object of the game is to work cooperatively to build a structure. The children take turns rolling the die, counting out that many building pieces, and adding them to the group structure. Either set a time limit for play or establish a set number of turns per player.

When the game ends, discuss the project. Which strategies were most helpful in building the structure? What problems did your group have? What could you do differently next time? Are there things the group should decide before beginning to play?

Variation:

Children work together to build a structure. The children take turns rolling the die and removing that number of pieces from the structure. Play ends when all the pieces have been returned to the container. Discuss whether group strategies changed when playing this variation.

Theme Ideas:

Children may build a specific structure to fit the theme. Example: build a barn to fit the farm theme. Children could also build on the computer using Pattern Blocks.