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Lesson Excerpt:

1.      Launch:

Cats on the Grass (5-7 minutes)

As a whole class, pull a number card (0-5) and use it in as your start number in your problem. Tell the following story to the class.

There were --- cats on the grass. 1 more cat came. How many cats are there now?

Show a Ten Frame to the students and   say:

Let’s use a Ten Frame to help us.

The teacher should say:

     cats were sitting on the grass. Who can put counters on the five frame to show the cats?

So, some more cats came. Do we know how many cats came?

Who can show that with counters?

How can we find out how many cats we have   now?

Ask students to share their strategies.

As students give their strategies, it is acceptable to allow many students to share their strategies, even if they are the same.

After asking students to share strategies, ask students to share their solution. Again, it is acceptable for many students to share their solution.

The teacher might say: How many cats walked there? Does anyone have a different solution?

Regardless of the solution, the teacher should not lead students to think whether their solution is correct or incorrect.

The teacher then asks students:   How can we solve this   problem?

Possible responses:

I counted the counters.

I knew that  __ and  1 is         .

I started at ___  and counted one more in my head to get        .

The teacher finishes the problem by placing --  counters of a different color on the Five Frame.

How can we use counters to help us solve this   problem?