Understanding Numbers through Creating Stories

Did you know that stories 

can be about numbers? 

Sky and Trees children do. 

Now there are lots of number books — books where every page is about a different group of animals and each is a different number, but they are not number stories.

In a number story you start with one number and then ... somehow, that same number changes!

We have been reading some number stories...

All of these are number books, but only two of them are number stories! Visit the Trees Class and see if you can separate the sheep from the goats!

...and even learned that some of our favorite rhymes and chants are number stories... (Think, "Five Little Ducks Went Out One Day" or "Five Green and Speckled Frogs.") 

In the Trees classroom, children from both classes are using all that we have learned about birds to create their very own number stories. 

So how do we use our knowlege of birds to change numbers?

Well, maybe a bird starts alone and then more are added until you have a flock of six.

Or maybe you start with four eggs and, as they hatch one by one and the baby birds eat the egg shells, slowly there are fewer and fewer eggs! Then we have counted backwards from four to zero.

Here are just a few of our latest publications ...

the charming "BIRDS HATCH" by Zaiden

the etherial "4 BIRDS" by Melanie

the delectable "WORM LUNCH" by Viviana

and the highly anticipated "3 GEESE, 3 EGGS" by Sydney

(Click here for last week's blog on the power of invented spelling.)

Each of these stories counts up or down in a brilliantly birdy way. Other stories regale us by adding two or three at a time! 

Like in Camila's story ...

"Duck Friends"

Once upon a time there was one duck all lonely on the river.

Then two more ducks flew down, down and came into the water with him on the river.

Now there are three duck friends!

THE END.

Why are we doing this? By harnessing the energy from the bird study, and using it to create narratives that use what we have learned about numbers, the children are creating their own story equations.

Camila has not only shown us that she knows that 1 + 2 = 3, but she has also shown how that mathematical reality can exist in a changing situation. 

When you visit the classrooms, see if you can find the equation hidden inside your child's story. 

You may learn a thing or two about birds as well.