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Learning about Number Relationships and Properties of Numbers Using Calculators
and Hundred Boards: A First-Grade Class Works with Representations of
Number and Counting
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Students’ knowledge
of number concepts and patterns grows more sophisticated as they work
with different representations of number and counting. As part of the
morning routine, one first-grade teacher had students represent numerical
patterns in two ways. Each day they noted how many days of the school
year had passed by writing the number on a strip of adding-machine tape.
Every fifth day they made a circle around the number, and every tenth
day they placed a square around the number. They discussed that the circles
indicated counting by fives and the boxes showed counting by tens.
As another way of representing
the same counting sequence, the students used a class hundred board and
crossed out one number each day but highlighted every fifth day with yellow
and every tenth day with red. As the days progressed, the students noticed
that the highlighted numbers made a pattern of numbers ending in fives
and zeros. The teacher used a calculator to show that the sequence of
numbers that appeared in the display when counting by fives and by tens
continued with the same pattern beyond 100 .
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