• “Can you use your markers/counters to tell me what happened in the story?”
• “There were 4 markers at school. Which markers/counters show the 4 markers that were at school? Which markers/counters show the 3 more markers that Elena brought to school?”
   

• Invite a student who used markers to share.
• “How do the markers show what happened in the story?”
• Invite a student who used counters or connecting cubes to share.
• “How do the counters show what happened in the story?” (Those counters show the markers that were at school. Those counters show the markers that Elena brought to school.)
• “There were 4 markers and Elena brought 3 more markers. 4 markers and 3 markers is 7 markers. We can write that as ‘4 and 3’ or ‘’.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to interpret how a drawing represents a story problem (MP2). Students solve a Take From, Result Unknown story problem. Because balls are the objects in the story problem, it may be easier to relate the circles in a picture to the balls in the story. Students are introduced to the number 0 in the Activity Synthesis. They learn how to form the number and practice tracing it in their books. 

• Draw 5 circles in a line with 5 of them crossed out.

  

• “Lin drew this picture. How does this picture show what happened in the story?”
• If needed, ask “Where do you see 5 balls that are on the playground in the picture?” and “Why are 5 of the circles crossed out?”
• “How many balls are on the playground now?” (None, zero.)
• “There were 5 balls on the playground and Diego brought 5 of the balls inside. We can write that as ‘5 take away 5’ or ‘’. There are zero balls on the playground now. 5 take away 5 is 0.”
• Demonstrate writing “0.”
• “This is the number 0. I start at the top and draw a line all the way around.”
• “Use your finger to draw 0 in the air. Now use your finger to draw the number 0 on your desk."
• “Use your finger to trace the number 0 in your book. Now trace the number 0 with your pencil.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to learn Stage 3 of the Math Fingers center. Students each hold up some fingers on one hand and work with their partner to figure out how many fingers they are holding up together. Students color the fingers on the recording sheet and write a number to show how many fingers there are altogether. The recording sheet can be laminated or placed in a sheet protector so it can be used multiple times by students.

• “Was there a time when you didn’t need to count the fingers to figure out how many fingers you and your partner held up together? How did you know how many fingers there were?” (I could see that I had 2 fingers and my partner had 2 fingers. I know that 2 and 2 is 4. I only had 1 finger up and my partner had 3 fingers up. I know that 3 and 1 more is 4.)