Instructor Notes:

For materials preparations, click ‘Back to Main Menu’ button and select ‘Getting Started – EDC Setup’.

Read Every Day Counts Teacher’s Guide, Kanter and Gillespie, Great Source, 2005 or 2012 edition, p. 64-65.

This month Number Builder will display a different combination for 8 each day, depending on how the 8 counters are put into the two pockets by the day’s volunteer.

Two to three times a week, continue from last month, inviting children to offer addition and take away subtraction stories to go with the counters in the pockets.

If no one has yet suggested comparing the two amounts in the pockets, you might want to model a comparing subtraction story. See photo.

Children can be introduced to this other interpretation for the minus sign, reading the number sentence 5 – 3 = 2, as “5 compared to 3 gives us a difference of 2” or “5 compared to 3 is 2 more”. Children who may be quite familiar with using subtraction to record take away situations may need a lot more experience using subtraction to record comparisons.