The purpose of this activity is for students to revisit Stage 1 of the Math Stories center. In an earlier variation, students asked and answered “how many?” questions about groups of images in different arrangements. In this activity, students represent how many images there are using drawings, numbers, or words. Using written numbers to represent how many images there are is highlighted in the Activity Synthesis.

• “How many ____ are there?”
• “How can you show that there are __ things? Can you use drawings or numbers to show that there are ___ things?”

• Invite students who wrote a number in their representation to share. Ask, “how many?” questions that are answered by those numbers. For example, if a student counted boats in the beach math story picture, ask:
• “How many boats did they count? How do you know?” (They counted 5 boats. I know because they wrote the number 5.)
• “We can write numbers to show how many things we counted. If you haven’t already, write a number to show how many you counted.”
• “When you play Math Stories during centers, be sure to write a number to show how many things you counted. You can also use drawings or words."

The purpose of this activity is to represent quantities of 1‒10 objects using a number. Students practice counting groups of 1‒10 objects and recognizing and writing numbers. In the Activity Synthesis, students determine how many objects are in a bag based on the number label, which encourages them to connect numbers to quantities (MP2). Students develop their understanding that the arrangement of objects does not affect the quantity.

Any small classroom materials can be used to fill the mystery bags, such as buttons, connecting cubes, or pencils. Collections that students bring from home can also be used.

• Display a bag containing 8 objects labeled with the number 8.
• “How many objects do you think are in this bag? What makes you think that?” (I think there are 8 objects in the bag, because the number 8 is on the sticky note.)
• 30 seconds: quiet think time
• Share responses.
• “Let’s see if you were right.”
• Take the objects out of the bag and count them.
• “There were 8 objects in the bag. We could tell because the number 8 was written on the bag. Now I’m going to put the objects in a line. How many objects are there now?”
• Demonstrate moving the 8 objects into a line.
• “We still have 8 objects. I didn’t add any more objects or take any away, so there are still 8 objects.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to choose from activities that offer practice identifying, representing, and comparing numbers and composing shapes.

Students choose any previously introduced stage from these centers:

• Math Stories
• Math Libs
• Bingo
• Number Race
• Geoblocks
• Math Fingers

• “What is one math question that your partner asked you during centers today?”