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Joining and Separating

The document discusses joining and separating groups of blocks and recognizing the connection between these actions. It provides examples of activities for children to practice combining and separating handfuls of blocks, filling and emptying block holders, and using activity sheets to join and separate blocks to model addition and subtraction problems.

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205 views4 pages

Joining and Separating

The document discusses joining and separating groups of blocks and recognizing the connection between these actions. It provides examples of activities for children to practice combining and separating handfuls of blocks, filling and emptying block holders, and using activity sheets to join and separate blocks to model addition and subtraction problems.

Uploaded by

Digi-Block
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Joining and Separating

Focus Joining and separating groups and recognizing


the connection between these two actions

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n the simplest sense, addition means joining and subtraction means separating. In this section, the initial explorations with single blocks expose children to these two actions and the relationship between them.

Joining Blocks
Have children sit in pairs with a white mat or sheet of paper between them. Have one child put 4 blocks on his or her side of the work mat and the other child place 3 blocks on the other side. Ask,

If you put these blocks together, how many will there be?
Most children will put the blocks together and count to find the number in all. Some children may count on from their own group of blocks. Encourage children to demonstrate their strategies. Through such demonstrations, children are exposed to other counting techniques and may choose to adopt those that are more efficient. Have children represent what they did with the blocks. They may use drawings, stamps, numbers, or words. Have children share and explain their recordings. Over several days, repeat this activity many times using different numbers. Once the basic idea of joining blocks is established, introduce children to story problems about combining the blocks. For example, have two children dramatize the following:

You have 4 blocks. Your friend gives you 5 blocks. How many blocks do you have now?

When children dramatize story problems, they better understand the actions involved.

Once the answer is found, have several children retell the story of what they did with the blocks. Through such retellings, other children have the opportunity to make the activity their own, and all of them repeatedly hear the language associated with joining blocks. Ensure that the children have many opportunities to connect these actions to representations made with drawings,
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stamps, words, or numbers. When appropriate, the blocks can be used to model story problems with other contexts.

Separating Blocks
Have children work in pairs with 7 blocks placed on a work mat between them. Ask one child to remove 5 of the blocks. Ask,

How many blocks are left?


When children find the answer, have them record what they did with the blocks, using drawings, stamps, numbers, or words, whichever they choose. Over several days, repeat this activity many times using different numbers. Once the basic idea of separating blocks is established, introduce children to story problems about separating the blocks. For example, have two children dramatize the following:

You have 8 blocks in your hands. You drop 2 of them. How many blocks do you have in your hands now?
Again, have children retell this story. Encourage them to connect the actions in the story to representations made with drawings, stamps, or number sentences.
Childrens drawings like this one represent the action of the story problem.

Again, when appropriate, the blocks can be used to model story problems in other contexts.

Making Connections
Have each pair of children place 3 blocks on one side of their work mat and 5 blocks on the other side. Have them combine the blocks and find the total. Then ask,

If you took the 5 blocks away again, how many blocks would be left?
Repeat the process with different numbers. Over time, have children predict the number of blocks that would remain. Next have children put 9 blocks on the work mat. Ask one child to take some blocks and move them to one side. The other child moves the remaining
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blocks to the other side. Together, the children agree on the number of blocks in each quantity. Ask,

If you put your two groups back together, how many blocks will there be?
Repeat with different numbers. Over time, with many repetitions, children will be able to predict the number of rejoined blocks without actually moving and counting them. Encourage children to generalize this idea by asking,

How do you know it will be the same number you started with?

Practicing Key Ideas


Putting Handfuls Together
Children work in pairs. Each child takes a handful of blocks and counts them. Pairs then put their blocks together, count the number of blocks in all, and represent their work.

Filling Holders
Pairs of children work together with single blocks and a holder. One child places some of the blocks in the holder. The other child then decides how many more blocks are needed to fill the holder. Children use the blocks to check. They can repeat the activity many times, reversing roles.

Emptying Holders
Pairs of children work together with a block-of-10. One child removes the cover and takes away some of the single blocks while the other child closes his or her eyes. The removed blocks are hidden under the cover. The other child then looks at the remaining blocks to decide how many blocks were removed. Children lift up the cover to check. They can repeat the activity many times, reversing roles.

Join and Separate


Provide pairs of children with a copy of Activity Sheet 6. First one child places a group of blocks in the top part of the sheet. Together children count the blocks and agree on the amount. The other child then moves some blocks from the top down to the bottom of the sheet (either side). The remaining blocks are moved down to the other side. Children count the number of blocks on each side and represent their work using drawings, stamps, or numbers. Then children predict how many blocks there will be when they put all the blocks back together at the top of the sheet and count to check.

On the activity sheet for Join and Separate, a child can model 4 1 = 3 and then predict the outcome of rejoining 3 + 1.

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Assessing Learning
1. Have the child make two groups of blocks, one of 6 blocks and one of 2 blocks. Ask,

How many blocks are there in all?


Does the child form the groups correctly? recount all the blocks to find the total or count on from one of the groups? answer correctly? 2. Have the child make a group of 10 blocks. Then ask the child to give you 4 of them and tell you how many blocks are left. After the child completes this task, ask,

If I give you back the 4 blocks, how many will you have? How do you know?
Does the child correctly name the number of remaining blocks? replace the blocks and count them all or immediately recognize the answer? explain his or her thinking clearly? 3. Have the child use the blocks to solve a story problem. For example:

You have 9 blocks. You give 3 blocks to a friend. How many blocks do you have now?
Does the child model the problem correctly? answer correctly?

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