Math Lesson: Number Sense with Dot Cards
Samples of the dot cards I used in my lesson.
I planned and taught a lesson to help kindergartners develop number sense. The lesson was modeled after a Number Talk format. The students counted dot cards, articulated counting strategies, practiced "chunking" the dots into subgroups, and created their own dot arrays. The three activities in this lesson were:
- Students count dot cards and articulate strategies
- Students count dot cards and write corresponding numeral
- Students create their own dot arrays to represent a quantity
Lesson Description
After preparing the lesson materials and setting up the space in which I would be teaching, I brought the students out to the pod area and had them sit on the floor in a circle with me. I introduced dot cards, modeling how we count the dots and explain how we counted. Then I showed the students several dot cards; when the students knew how many dots there were, they gave me a silent thumbs-up. Each student then said how many dots he or she counted and how he or she counted the dots. For the second activity, I gave each student an answer board and a marker, and the students wrote the numeral corresponding to the quantity of dots they counted. We again shared answers and strategies. For the third activity, I showed students a numeral, and they created dot arrays using counting chips. Then the students read both their own and their classmates’ dot arrays as I emphasized how we can use multiple strategies to count the same dot card. Overall, the lesson went well; I was able to follow the plan I had written, and I think the students achieved the objectives for learning.
