Overview
of Series
The Count On It! series bolsters
children’s understanding of numbers by using simple, patterned, rhyming
text and vivid photographs of objects young children will easily recognize. The
tight correspondence of pictures to text makes these books particularly well
suited to emergent readers. The rhyming text provides an aid to readers sounding
out new words.
Comprehension
Strategy
Self-Monitoring:
"Fix-Up Tools"
Being able to catch and correct
mistakes while reading is a key skill for young children to develop. Readers
need to be aware of the times that they get confused while reading. You can
introduce a set of tools for correcting misreads that will allow readers to
self-correct and not miss meanings. These tools include rereading, using letter
and picture clues, and reading
ahead.
"I
Do" (Teacher models strategy)
Teacher: "I
am looking at page 4 of the book about the number one. I read ‘one
pal.’ But before I turn the page, I stop to think if this makes sense. I
look at the picture and see a girl. I suppose she could be somebody’s pal,
but I don’t think this makes sense. I go back and reread the text. I know
the word one is correct. Then I think about the next word—I try to sound
it out: /p/ /ai/ /l/. I’ve got it! The word is pail, like the pail in the
picture. Checking that what I read makes sense is important. If I catch a
mistake, I can reread, look at the pictures and letters, or even read ahead to
try to understand the book better. These are my ‘fix-up
tools!’"
"We
Do" (Teacher and children practice
together)
Read the rest of the book together with
children, asking after each page if what they read made sense. If the group
seems to have trouble with a certain page, help them use a strategy to correct
the confusion. If there are no mistakes, demonstrate a possible misreading and
ask what strategies a reader would use for correcting the mistake. For example:
Teacher: "Let’s look at page 8. What if we had read ‘one
tall’ by mistake? What tools could we use to understand this better?
That’s right! If we reread, sound out the words, and check the picture,
then we will see that the word is
tail."
"You
Do" (Children use the strategy)
Monitor children
as they read the other books in this series. Check that they are asking
themselves whether their reading makes sense and that they are using fix-up
tools to correct
misunderstandings.
Textual
Supports
Picture-to-text
matches
Rhyming
patterns
The words in the books match the pictures well. Most
early readers will be able to see and remember the connections between the words
and the items shown in the appropriate quantities in pictures. They can also use
the A-B-C-B rhyme pattern to figure out some
words.
Textual
Challenges
Unfamiliar
vocabulary
Index
Some
words will be unfamiliar for young readers. The index will likely be a new text
element, too. Preview and reinforce vocabulary using the "Words We
Know" section at the end of the book, and teach children to use the
index.
ESL
Connections
Real-Life
Examples
Encourage children to use the language pattern in each
book to point out things in the classroom that have the same quantity as the
book being read. Also, have them look for the things in the "Words We
Know" section in the classroom. For example, using the book One, a child
could point to his or her own nose and say "one
nose."
Language
Acquisition
Number
Word Chart
Have children draw their own pictures of items from
each book on index cards. Help them add the words to the cards and to write the
number of the items on each card. Then make a class pocket chart with a column
for each number in the book series. Mix up all of the cards after the children
have read all the books and encourage children to take turns placing cards in
the class
chart.
Integration
of Literacy,Science, and Art
(Number and Operations)
The books can be used to develop skill at recognizing "how many" in
sets of objects, which is an early national mathematics standard. Reinforce this
skill with children after they read the books. Point to various objects and
collections of objects in the classroom that appear in quantities of 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, or 10. Have volunteers tell you the number associated with each item or group
of items.
(Writing) Have each child choose a favorite number and then
create a brief book about it. Help children create simple, staple-bound pages,
and then brainstorm items in the quantity of the number they choose. Then help
them as they draw and write the content for these simple
books.
Internet
Links
http://illuminations.nctm.org/
The
"Illuminations" section of the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics Web site provides a wide variety of online activities for children
(organized by grade level), hundreds of lesson plans (organized by grade level
or standards), and more. (Teacher and children)
http://www.aaamath.com/cnt.html
This
site provides online counting games and interactive practice with counting.
(Children)
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/counting/index.html
This
site gives children practice counting through activities that are available in
English and Spanish. Notes for teachers provide background. (Teacher and
children)
http://mathforum.org/students/elem/
The
Math Forum Web site provides activities on a variety of topics, including
numbers and counting. There are interactive activities, such as chats, projects,
and puzzles. (Children)
http://www.kidzone.ws/MATH/ocean/index.htm
This site provides ocean-themed worksheets for counting, organized by grade
level, that you can download and distribute. The worksheets are sorted by number
and can therefore be tied easily to specific books in the "Count On
It!" series. (Teacher)
