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Early Childhood - Math
The following learning standards/benchmarks can be supported with use of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Trading Cards Sets 1 through 6, partially because they are useable and countable objects. Please see suggested standards/benchmarks and basic instructions for use. Feel free to adapt or modify these ideas.
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6.A.ECa Count with understanding and recognize “how many” in small sets up to 5.
Have the students count out the cards, up to five. Scatter the cards in groups, up to five, and have the students identify the amounts.
6.A.ECb Use subitizing (the rapid and accurate judgment of how many items there are without counting) to identify the number of objects in sets of 4 or less.
Scatter the cards in groups, up to four, and have the students identify the amounts.
6.B.ECb Show understanding of how to count out and construct sets of objects of a given number up to 5.
Have the students count to a number between and including two and five. Then have the students count out the appropriate number of cards to match that number.
6.B.ECc Identify the new number created when small sets (up to 5) are combined or separated.
Divide the cards into groups of one, two and three. Combine two of the groups and have the students identify how many cards are in the newly formed group.
6.B.ECe Fairly share a set of up to 10 items between two children.
Count out an even number of cards, up to 10, per pair of students. Have the students in each pair take turns removing one card until all the cards from the set are gone. Have the students identify the number of cards they received.
6.C.ECa Estimate the number of objects in a small set.
Scatter small groups of the cards and have the students estimate the number of cards in each group. Have the students count the cards to see if their estimate was correct.
6.D.ECa Compare two collections to see if they are equal or determine which is more, using a procedure of the child’s choice.
Count out two groups of cards, up to 10 each. The number of cards per set can be equal or different. Have the students tell you if there are the same number of cards in each group or if the number is different. Ask the students to explain how they determined the answer.
6.D.ECb Describe comparisons with appropriate vocabulary, such as “more,” “less,” “greater than,” “fewer,” “equal to” or “same as.”
Prepare three groups of cards. Ensure that two of the groups have equal numbers of cards and that one group has a different number of cards than the other two groups. Have the students relate the vocabulary terms listed in the benchmark to the differences in the card groups.
8.A.ECa Sort, order, compare and describe objects according to characteristics or attribute(s).
Pick a group of cards from your deck with easily recognizable images (birds, trees, mammals, insects, etc.) that have similar characteristics (wings, feathers, leaves, etc.). Have the students place the cards representing trees, birds, insects, etc. in separate piles. Now tell the students to place the cards in an order of your choosing (bird, then tree, then butterfly, etc.). Pick several cards with the same type of image (birds, insects, trees, mammals, etc.) and have them compare traits within a grouping (this bird is blue, this bird is yellow, etc.). Have the students describe the species in the images based on observable characteristics.
10.B.ECa Organize, represent and analyze information using concrete objects, pictures and graphs, with teacher support.
Pick a group of cards from your deck with easily recognizable images (birds, trees, mammals, insects, etc.) and have the students organize the cards into groups of your choosing (birds, trees, mammals, insects, etc.). Try to have different numbers represented for each group. Have the students construct a graph to show the different numbers represented by each group. The cards themselves can be used to construct a graph. For example, if there are five birds, place the bird cards in a vertical line so that the cards are touching where they meet, but you can easily see the height of the column is five cards. Next to this column, add a column for cards representing trees (or one of the other categories). Continue until you have represented all the groups. Have the students explain what the graph represents.