Collections can be estimated, organised and grouped strategically for an efficient and accurate count. Students can represent their strategies and counts with numbers, symbols, words and diagrams.

Counting collections promotes number sense, and is an essential foundation for students to be successful mathematicians. Recent literature (e.g. Boaler, 2008) suggests that flexible grouping practices best supports equitable opportunities for student learning.

It is important to share the mathematical focus of the task with students. This task addresses content across multiple strands. Provide students with opportunities to group objects strategically to make the count easier, to work collaboratively, to record their strategies and to share and justify their counts and strategies using a variety of representations. Estimation of quantities and checking by counting promotes number sense. The progression in the sophistication of students’ thinking when asked to count a collection of objects goes from counting in ones, to counting in groups, reasoning additively to reasoning multiplicatively.

Consider the mathematical language your students are likely to use when grouping, counting and measuring and the language you want to develop.

Student agency is promoted if students have choice over their own counting and recording methods. Rather than suggesting particular solutions or counting methods to students, teachers can use enabling prompts to support students who require assistance. Extending prompts can be offered when students have completed the task to build more sophisticated strategies and understandings.