Counting Collections

Watch the video below for an introduction to Counting Collections.

What is it?

Counting collections is an instructional strategy where students work in small groups or individually to count and record a large quantity of objects. These objects can vary, such as buttons, beans, cubes, or other manipulatives. The goal is for students to develop a deeper understanding of numbers, quantities, and mathematical relationships.

Janice Novakowski discusses the high yield routine of Counting Collections and what it may look like in your classroom.

Resource

Why should I do it?

The process involves students sorting and grouping the objects, organizing them into sets, and then counting each set. They practice skip-counting, identifying patterns, and improving their one-to-one correspondence skills. It helps students grasp the concept of cardinality, which is the understanding that the last number counted represents the total quantity of objects in a set.