ABSTRACT
Many of the reader are familiar with whole-group routines in which children keep track of the days of school. Like many other calendar routines, keeping track of the days of school often becomes rote and uninteresting, for teachers and students alike. Students practice using the bead-string model in the whole-group setting and count the number of beads to keep track of the number of days in school. Students continue to practice using the bead string and number line models to figure out how many days they have been in school. It is often challenging for students who have not yet developed cardinality to answer a question that requires them to use part-whole relations. Maria realized that as Frankie was given more responsibility for the math routines in class, the battles became less frequent and his excitement for school grew.
