The purpose of this activity is for students to identify the group of objects that has more. This activity begins with a version of the Act it Out routine and builds on students’ work in the previous unit of answering “are there enough?” questions. In those lessons, students passed out, or matched up objects to determine if there were enough. Students build on this idea to help them determine which group has more objects.

The context of family mealtimes that is introduced in this activity will be revisited throughout the unit. Acting it out gives students an opportunity to make sense of a context (MP1). As students share about the tools that they use when eating with their families, record and save their responses to refer to and add to in future lessons. Consider reading picture books about family mealtimes. Some suggestions include:

Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke
Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park
Yoko by Rosemary Wells
The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza) by Philomen Sturges
Rice & Rocks by Sandra L. Richards

• Invite students who acted out giving one spoon to each person to share. 
• “They matched the spoons and the people. We can see that each person has a spoon and then there are extra spoons. There are more spoons than people.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to learn Stage 2 of the Shake and Spill center. Students decide together how many counters to use (up to 10). They take turns shaking and spilling the counters. They compare the number of red and yellow counters and describe their comparisons.

As students shake and spill their counters multiple times, they have the chance to compare two groups of objects that have very different quantities as well as two groups of objects with very similar quantities. Students can compare the number of objects in the groups visually or by lining up and matching, as they did in the previous activity. Students may also count and use their knowledge of the count sequence to compare (“There are 7 red and 5 yellow counters. I know that 7 is more than 5.”). Students hear and repeat full comparison statements such as, “There are fewer red counters than yellow counters.” In making comparisons, students have a reason to use language precisely (MP6).

• Display 5 red counters and 7 yellow counters.
• “How can we figure out if there are fewer red or yellow counters?” (We can line them up and match them. We can count them.)
• Invite students to share how to compare the number of counters.
• “There are fewer red counters than yellow counters. There are more yellow counters than red counters.” 

The purpose of this activity is for students to choose from activities that offer practice with number and counting concepts. Students choose any previously introduced stage from these centers:

• Shake and Spill
• Math Fingers
• Pattern Blocks
• Picture Books

• Display 5 red counters and 5 yellow counters, lined up and matched. 
• “Mai and Clare spilled their counters. Are there more red counters or yellow counters?” (There are the same number of red and yellow counters.) 
• Invite students to chorally repeat this phrase in unison 1‒2 times:
  • “There are the same number of red and yellow counters.”