# Day 2 — One number, several ways to show it

**25 minutes · AC9MFN01 (0–5, partial), AC9MFN03 (counting to 5, partial) · educator review pending**

**Success today:** A child connects a numeral, spoken number name and collection for 0–5 and keeps the quantity when the objects change type.

**Prepare:** Numeral cards 0–5; five-frame on paper; five large counters; drawing sheet. Review yesterday’s zero and one-to-one count first.

1. **Reconnect, 3 min.** Show an empty five-frame: “How many counters? Which card tells that?” Invite a child to show three. If yesterday’s count was shaky, count each piece while sliding it into a frame space.
2. **Model, 5 min.** Draw four circles while counting one at a time. Place four counters in the frame. Put card 4 alongside. Say, “Four sounds like this, looks like this numeral, and can be four circles or four counters. The objects changed; the amount stayed four.”
3. **Play: home makers, 10 min.** Give each pair a card 0–5. One makes that many paper “windows” on a house drawing; the other makes the same number of counter “plants” in its garden. Partners check by counting, then trade cards. Other original scenes: a sports kit needs balls and cones; a campsite needs tents and lanterns. For zero, leave that item type absent and still show the 0 card.
4. **Independent try, 4 min.** Show numeral 5. Ask for a set of five, then a different representation of five (draw, fingers, frame or spoken description). Use 2 or 4 if five is not yet secure.
5. **Check and close, 3 min.** Show a set of four mixed-size objects. Ask for its numeral and total. Ask, “If I swap these for four bigger blocks, how many then?”

**If size drives the answer:** Pair the small and large objects one for one and count both; ask what changed and what stayed the same. If a child stops at four when asked for five, place five in the frame, count together, remove and rebuild.

**Access routes:** Offer thick-line frames, high-contrast numeral cards, tactile slots or an adult describing the set. A child may select a numeral by eye gaze or instruct a partner to draw. If finger showing is uncomfortable or unavailable, use cards or objects instead.

**Record:** numeral-name-collection links for 0–5; whether a change in object type is mistaken for a change in number; independent versus prompted evidence.