25 minutes · AC9MFN05 (practical addition and quantification); partial practice · educator review pending
Success: The child tracks a starting set, adds a named number of objects and gives the new total, including a zero-addition example.
Prepare per pair: ten counters, a start/change/now mat, cards 0–10 and story cards. Keep the added objects separate until the action is spoken or shown.
- Retrieve, 3 min. Build yesterday's four and three; let children count the whole seven.
- Model, 6 min. Put four garden pot markers in START. Say, “I begin with four. Three more arrive.” Place three in CHANGE, then join them into NOW. “I can count all seven. If I know four, I can also count on five, six, seven.” Both strategies are valid; show the objects with each word.
- Guided game, 9 min. Partners enact 5 bike job cards plus 1, 7 museum labels plus 0, or 0 art shapes plus 5. One tells the story; the other acts and counts, then swap. Ask, “What changed? What stayed the same when zero was added?”
- Fresh try, 4 min. Start with two counters. Give four more. “Show the change and tell me how many are there now.” Then, if ready, try adding zero to the result.
- Check, 3 min. Show start five and add one. Key: 4 + 3 = 7; 5 + 1 = 6; 7 + 0 = 7; 0 + 5 = 5; independent 2 + 4 = 6.
If the child restarts counting at one: That is a valid counting-all strategy if each object is counted once; do not mark it wrong. Offer counting on as another method, with the initial set checked first. If adding zero is confused with “there are zero now,” leave all starting objects visible and add an empty change tray.
Access and record: Use large/tactile counters and boundaries, spoken or plain-text story, sign/AAC choices and directed placement. Record start, change, result, strategy and support; English sentence fluency is not the mathematics score.