Comparing Groups of Gold Bars

Area: Numeracy
Skill: Comparing and Ordering
Key Targeted Strategies:
  • Encourage students to use matching to compare groups of objects
Foundational Strategies:
  • Modeling and using math language

What to Look for in This Clip:

Using matching to compare objects is a great strategy to build children's early understandings of how to compare two or more groups of objects.

In this video, we see the teacher model this strategy as she compares two different sets students have made using gold bars on a 5-frames.

At the start of the clip, we see the teacher ask, "How many more does Jaden have than Kendall?" She then matches the blocks up by pointing to one block in each 10-frame and saying, "They both have one, they both have two, they both have three, but do they both have four?" By scaffolding the students in this way, they're able to successfully conclude that there is one more gold bar in Jaden's frame. Throughout this example, the teacher also uses math language several times as she emphasizes the word "more."