This was my first visit with Mrs. Jenkins' first grade class at Sierra Bonita Elementary. The learning objective for this first lesson was to help the students learn a new math strategy called counting on. The idea behind counting on is taking the bigger number in an equation and then counting up from that number. For example, if you have the addition problem 4+2, instead of a student using their fingers to count "1,2,3,4...5.6", they simply start by saying "4" and then they can use their fingers to add "5,6". (By holding up two fingers they are also keeping track of how many they are adding.)
When turning this into a dance lesson, we started off simple. For each addition problem I had the students clap their hands and then rub them together while saying "5+3 let's see...." We would then say the larger number while jumping out into a shape of their choice, and then to keep it simple, we would take as many steps as we had to count on. So in this case the students would jump out into their shape while saying "5" and they would then take three steps while saying "6,7,8". After talking the last step they would freeze and I would ask them "What's the answer?" and "8" would be their reply.
Once I felt like the students had mastered this we changed it up a bit to generate more creative movement. I would give them a task, such as instead of talking steps you have to create a different smooth shape for each number they add on. We continued to do the addition problems as a class but I let the students take turns coming up with the addition problem. At one point one student picked the problem 7+5, crossing the ten barrier is a big deal but the students did it without blinking an eye! It was at this point that I knew that the students had truly grasped the concept of counting on and that it was helping them with their math.
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