In this unit, students put together their understanding from throughout the year to cap off the major work and fluency goals of the grade.

Section A: Counting and Comparing

In this section, students count and compare collections of up to 20 objects. They focus on the count sequence up to 20 and use their knowledge of the count sequence to determine 1 more or 1 less than a given quantity or number.

Section B: Math in Our School

In this section, students explore and describe the math that they see in their environment. Students participate in multiple activities that allow them to notice, record, ask questions, and tell stories about math in their community. Students record quantities that they see in their school by making their own number book. Then students ask and answer their own mathematical questions about their school, such as “How many tiles are there from the office to the cafeteria?” or “Are there more doors or more windows in the library?” Finally students create, share, and solve story problems about their school environment and community. While the school building is used as a context, the activities in this section can be adapted for students to do in the community or at home.

There are 5 pictures on one side of the hallway.
There are 3 pictures on the other side of the hallway.
How many pictures are there in the hallway?
 

\(5+3=8\)

Section C: Fluency within 5

In this section, students develop fluency with adding and subtracting within 5. Repeated practice with different compositions of numbers to 5 prepares students to fluently find the values of addition and subtraction expressions. Students apply what they learned throughout the section, using objects and equations to find an unknown part, with totals up to 5.

Section D: All about 10

In this section, students work with 10 as a benchmark for numbers within 20. This work prepares them to add within 20 in grade 1, where students will be encouraged to make a ten. Students compose and decompose 10 in different ways and connect these compositions and decompositions with equations. Students find the number that makes 10 when added to any given number. They use their understanding of the magnitude of 10 to estimate if groups have more or fewer than 10 items. Finally, students compose and decompose teen numbers 11–19, always working with a group of 10 ones and some more ones. Throughout this section, students use fingers, objects, drawings, 10-frames, and equations to represent their thinking.

Try it at home!

Near the end of the unit, ask your kindergartener to solve the following problems:

• Are there more doors or more windows in our home?
• Let’s find objects in our home to count.

Questions that may be helpful as they work:

• How do you know?
• Are there more than 10 objects/doors/windows or fewer than 10 objects/doors/windows?

Solution:
Answers may vary.

Sample response:

• There are more windows than doors. I know this because I counted 12 windows and 8 doors. 12 is more than 8.
• There are more than 10 windows. There are fewer than 10 doors.
• There are 8 frames on our wall. I touched each frame and counted out loud to help me keep track. There are fewer than 10 frames.