All together now

Adults and little kids seemingly love to count out loud with one another.  We all did as a class, anyway.  And my son gets a kick out of choral counting with mom and me (all the way to 20!).  But so far my meager evidence from our Tuesday site doesn't prove that out with the elementary school kids. 

Maybe the numbers didn't challenge them enough, or maybe they were weirded out by the odd, tall man who wanted them to loudly skip-count with him, but the kids seemed disinterested to say the least.  I'd love to get another chance to see if I could make it more exciting for those students, but it's probably not in the cards.

That being said, I think I would like to try it with my kids who are used to me.  They got a kick out of the Quick Images, so I think they may go for this too.  I know they would actually really get into the patterns that become revealed, and it's a given that they love to hear themselves talk, so the "out loud" part would be a plus. 

Since they just began to add and subtract fractions, I think it would be a good "math facts" booster to have them count up by simple fractions to start, like 2/3 and 3/4, then maybe something like 7/8 or 5/16 just to be mean as a fun, challenging way to stretch their thinking.

I am interested to see how well they do and what sort of patterns we can find within the numbers if we try it out.  Will keep you posted...