Careful Counting with Bear

One-to-one correspondence is a vital skill for both reading and mathematical development, which is why I focus on it a lot with my preschool students. In math, it is basically the ability to assign only one number to an object that you are counting so that you don't recount or miscount any objects. I like to call it careful counting.

This week we read a cute counting book that helped us to practice the careful counting strategy of organizing.

Each student used a counting mat and colored bears while we read the story together.

With each new number in the story, we used the mat to help us organize the bears into a line so that we made sure we were counting carefully. Some kids were also mindful of associating their count with the written numeral as well, which was a great!

This was also a great starting activity for me to observe the strategies that each student uses while counting so I can plan for ways to further their development of this skill in the coming weeks and months.