{"id":3868,"date":"2015-03-06T18:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T02:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2015-03-06T18:00:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T02:00:49","slug":"the-counting-strip-a-powerful-tool-in-the-prek-1-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3868","title":{"rendered":"The Counting Strip:  A Powerful Tool in the preK-1 Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A simple but powerful tool in the preK-1 classroom is the counting strip. \u00a0Different than the number line, a counting strip is made up of 10 to 20 small rectangles and written in each rectangle is a number starting with &#8216;1&#8217;. \u00a0 Because young students need a lot of opportunities to simply count, the counting strips serves as a great foundation to later work with the number line and 10-frame.<\/p>\n<p>Why is the counting strip such a powerful tool?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Small objects such as beans can be placed one per rectangle which allows for easy counting<\/li>\n<li>As students count the objects\u00a0they get a concrete representation of one-to-one correspondence<\/li>\n<li>Reinforces the number sequence<\/li>\n<li>Students begin to connect quantity with the written numbers<\/li>\n<li>Reinforces cardinality &#8211; the last number stated refers to the whole group<\/li>\n<li>Serves as a guide as students learn how to write the numbers<\/li>\n<li>Builds the foundation for work on the number line<\/li>\n<li>Can reinforce the 5 and 10 benchmarks if the number strips are shaded (see photo below)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/files.ctctcdn.com\/65e834fa001\/0069a700-523f-442c-89ab-ef7b9fd8d6d4.jpg?a=1120265122224\" alt=\"\" width=\"416\" height=\"185\" name=\"ACCOUNT.IMAGE.140\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Although we include counting strips in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/kits\/#.VPTod_nF-So\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" shape=\"rect\">our kits<\/a>, they can easily be made by cutting and taping inch graph paper into strips and writing on the numbers or by cutting apart a hundreds chart and taping the strips together.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the number strip described above is limited to small objects. \u00a0How much fun would it be to create a life-sized number strip on the floor using masking tape and large printed out numbers! \u00a0Then the kids become the objects. \u00a0The possible real-life scenarios are endless: <em>There are 5 students with blue eyes and 4 students with green eyes. \u00a0How many students in the class have either blue or green eyes? \u00a0Let&#8217;s count them.<\/em> \u00a0Or&#8230;<em>How many students prefer prefer pumpkin pie over apple pie? \u00a0Let&#8217;s count them.<\/em> \u00a0Or&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the counting strip, sometimes it&#8217;s the simple things that pack the most powerful punch.<\/p>\n<p>And speaking of simple and powerful, our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/index.php#.VOPKqPnF-So\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" shape=\"rect\">Family Math Night<\/a> events are just that. \u00a0Our kits contain everything you need to host a successful event where kids and parents leave saying, &#8220;<em>When can we do that again?&#8221;<\/em> \u00a0And when it comes to math, that&#8217;s pretty powerful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A simple but powerful tool in the preK-1 classroom is the counting strip. \u00a0Different than the number line, a counting strip is made up of 10 to 20 small rectangles and written in each rectangle is a number starting with &#8216;1&#8217;. \u00a0 Because young students need a lot of opportunities to simply count, the counting strips serves as a great foundation to later work with the number line and 10-frame. Why is the counting strip such a powerful tool? Small&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3868\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,76,44,184,82,45],"tags":[102,81,21,94,61],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activities","category-family-math-night-2","category-kids-and-math","category-elementary-mathematics-2","category-nifty-numbers-kit","category-number-sense","tag-common-core-state-standards","tag-family-math-night-activities","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-number-and-operations-2","tag-number-sense-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Counting Strip: A Powerful Tool in the preK-1 Classroom - Karyn&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3868\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Counting Strip: A Powerful Tool in the preK-1 Classroom - Karyn&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A simple but powerful tool in the preK-1 classroom is the counting strip. \u00a0Different than the number line, a counting strip is made up of 10 to 20 small rectangles and written in each rectangle is a number starting with &#8216;1&#8217;. \u00a0 Because young students need a lot of opportunities to simply count, the counting strips serves as a great foundation to later work with the number line and 10-frame. 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