Clothesline Math

I’ve had the opportunity to work in 2 kindergarten and 2 k-1 classes at Rochester this week and test out a clothesline activity that I was curious about.  There are 2 English and 2 French Immersion classes with a complex mix of needs.  The results were very surprising!

I wondered whether K’s and 1’s would be responsive to trying out a partner warm-up activity based on an activity called “Give One, Get One”.

I created subitizing printouts to start: whole number clothesline plus images (0-20)-2apffjt

I decided to focus on the mixed dot patterns and left the other bits out.  I made sure to have a mix of dot patterns from 2 to 10, enough that all children and even all adults in the room had one each.

Next we explained and demoed the game: two partners face each other and show one another their dot cards.  Give each other time to answer “What (or how many) do you see?” and switch cards when done.  Then find a new partner and repeat!

The game in each class went well, despite having completely different needs.  It was an excellent counting activity for those who needed it.  It was a subitizing and adding activity for those who were ready for it.  Shy and anxious children could join in when they felt ready and partners could move as quickly or as slowly as they needed before switching.  All children were able to maintain their focus on the task for anywhere between 5 minutes and 15 minutes!  How did we know we needed to move on?  In one K class, 4 boys started a game of chase and that was that!   In the other classes, the signals were more subtle…attention of some students floating to caterpillars or books, one student asking if he could stop.  Most could have kept going.

Next came the clothesline activity.  Everyone sat down on the carpet with their dot pattern cards.  With the first 2 classes, I defined the challenge too quickly.  I identified one side of the line belonging to “petite” numbers and the other side belonging to “plus grande”.  The children, one at a time, decided where their numbers went.  This went well as the children found the activity to be a good challenge and maintained their focus.  In the second class, several children wanted to keep rearranging the line and apparently kept it up throughout the afternoon.  It made me think: What if I opened up the question?  Maybe I should test the question: If the line is the home of all these numbers, where do they belong?

In the attempt to wrangle with this big question, one kindergarten class watched each child carefully as they placed their cards on the line, seeing if they could figure out if there was some kind of a pattern that made sense.  They were allowed to slide other numbers over carefully if they needed to make space for a number that they felt belonged there.  When everyone placed their number on the line I asked, “I wonder if there is a pattern?” and began to record numerals above each card (on a whiteboard).  Some children noticed that parts seemed to have a pattern and parts didn’t make sense.

The big follow up was: Can you change the cards around so that you can see a pattern that makes sense?  Can you describe the pattern?  How might you use markers to help you?  Do you need to make more cards?  What might be missing?

I’m glad that I decided to open up the question.  Many children had lots of ideas on how the cards could be rearranged to make a pattern and worked away at it.  It was neat to hear stories of students choosing to take ownership of the task, of continued working and debating.

I would like to expand the partner task as well.  Could partners meet close to bins of objects?  Could they represent the number on their cards using objects?  Could they record their counting in journals?  Are they ready to think about how many object in total?  Could they record an equation on a new card and put that on the clothesline?  Hmmm.  Lots of potential here!