Counting to 1000

Strand: Number
Outcome: 1

Step 3: Plan for Instruction

Guiding Questions

What learning opportunities and experiences should I provide to promote learning of the outcomes and permit students to demonstrate their learning?
What teaching strategies and resources should I use?
How will I meet the diverse learning needs of my students?

What learning opportunities and experiences should I provide to promote learning of the outcomes and permit the students to demonstrate their learning?
What teaching strategies and resources should I use?
How will I meet the diverse learning needs of my students?

A. Assessing Prior Knowledge and Skills

Before introducing new material, consider ways to assess and build on students' knowledge and skills related to numbers to 1000. For example:

Check to make sure that students can skip count by 2s from 0 to 30.
Check to make sure that students can skip count by 5s to 55.
Have students skip count by 10s, past 110, to see if they understand numbers greater than 100.
Ask students to start at 10 and skip count by 2s, then stop them and ask them to start at 60.
Have students count by 2s, starting at 1.
Finally, have students count by 2s from a variety of odd and even starting points.
If students are able to show that they understand the concept of skip counting from different starting points, have them skip count by 5s from numbers that are multiples of 5, and by 10s from numbers that are multiples of 10.
Ask students to skip count by 10s, starting at 7.

If a student appears to have difficulty with these tasks, consider further individual assessment, such as a structured interview, to determine the student's level of skill and understanding. See Sample Structured Interview: Assessing Prior Knowledge and Skills .

B. Choosing Instructional Strategies

Consider the following guidelines for teaching about counting to 1000:

Use an "Assessment for Learning" approach to ensure that students understand the learning intentions for all activities, understand what distinguishes quality work, receive descriptive feedback about their progress, and have opportunities for self- and peer-assessment. For example, use the "Traffic Lights for Counting to 1000" masters found at the end of this document. Have students use this tool for self-assessment of learning intentions both before and after learning about numbers to 1000.
Immediately after presenting a task, have students discuss the task with a partner and make predictions as to the outcome of the task.
Have students work in partners or groups of three or four to complete tasks.
Invite students to reflect on their predictions after a task has been completed.
Plan a significant amount of time for students to compare strategies and outcomes as a whole class after a task has been completed. During this time, ask questions about the efficiency and mathematical thinking of particular responses in order to encourage greater abstraction and mathematical elegance.
Differentiating a task. Students who are looking for patterns in skip counting may start with single digit numbers or make use of manipulatives. Some students will be able to use higher numbers and find more complex patterns. Allow students to explore numbers beyond 1000 or additional skip-counting patterns to those listed in the specific outcome for Grade 3. Encourage students to make comparisons and generalizations about different skip-counting patterns.
Teach through problem solving. Challenge students with tasks that are open ended and nonroutine, and avoid "showing them how to do it." Allow students to explore numbers, create representations and present solutions in ways that may be different from those of other students.

C. Choosing Learning Activities

Learning Activities are examples of activities that could be used to develop student understanding of the concepts identified in Step 1.

Sample Learning Activities
Start Numbers and Jump Numbers	Download Activities
Counting Money	Download Activities
Skip-counting Number Rolls	Download Activities