Lesson video

Welcome to your lesson with me, Missis Harris.

In maths, we are going to look at conservation of number.

And we're going to use the number six to do this.

Here's what we're going to do in this lesson.

We're going to start it off with some singing.

I think songs are a great way to get familiar with numbers.

Then, we'll do our new learning, where we find out what I actually mean by conservation of number.

After that, we'll have your talk task, where you get a chance to chat about some of your learning.

After that, we'll deepen your understanding as we develop your thinking and your skills of conservation of number.

And we'll finish the lesson with your independent learning, where you show me everything you've learned.

Let's find out what you need.

Wow.

You don't need very much, do you? You just need some counters.

And what if you haven't got counters? You could use buttons.

You could use chocolate buttons.

Could use some other sweets, if you haven't eaten them.

You could use some pasta or, if your grownups can, they could cut you out some little circles from a cereal packet or paper.

So, if you haven't got your counters now, pause the video, go and find some, and then come back to me and press play when you're ready.

Everything you need? Fantastic.

Let's find out what today's song is.

Think, I've got a clue coming on the screen now.

Ah, I remember this song.

I love this song! It's about the six little men in a flying saucer.

Can you get your six little men ready? And join him with me when you get a hang of it.

♪ Six little men in a flying saucer ♪ ♪ Flew round the world one day ♪ ♪ They looked left and right ♪ ♪ But they didn't like the sight ♪ ♪ So one man flew away ♪ ♪ Five little men in a flying saucer ♪ ♪ Flew round the world one day ♪ ♪ They looked left and right ♪ ♪ But they didn't like the sight ♪ ♪ So one man flew away ♪ ♪ Four little men in a flying saucer ♪ ♪ Flew round the world one day ♪ ♪ They looked left and right ♪ ♪ But they didn't like the sight ♪ ♪ So one man flew away ♪ How many do we have there? Three! ♪ Three little men in a flying saucer ♪ ♪ Flew round the world one day ♪ ♪ They looked left and right ♪ ♪ But they didn't like the sight ♪ ♪ So one man flew away ♪ ♪ Two little men in a flying saucer ♪ ♪ Flew round the world one day ♪ ♪ They looked left and right ♪ ♪ But they didn't like the sight ♪ ♪ So one man flew away ♪ ♪ One little man in a flying saucer ♪ ♪ Flew round the world one day ♪ ♪ He looked left and right ♪ ♪ But he didn't like the sight ♪ ♪ So one man flew away ♪ How many little men we got left now? None! They've all flown away.

Great! We started with six.

We went five, four, three, two, one, zero.

Great, counting backwards with our song.

For our new learning we're going to be counting these objects.

Now, sometimes I like to count things that are all the same and I sort them out first.

So I'd have a group of teddy bears, a group of trains.

But this time I've got a group of mixed objects.

I still would like to know how many of them I have.

Now, I quite like to touch things or move them when I count, because if I don't, and I leave them like this, I forget which ones I've counted.

And sometimes I count them twice or miss some out.

So I find the best thing to do when I'm counting real objects, especially real objects, is I like to move them.

So let me move them forward first.

I've got one, two, three, four, five, six objects.

Let's just count them again.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Six was the last number I said when I was counting.

So that represents the total number of items I counted.

How about if I move them further apart.

Have I still six objects? Yes.

I have, haven't I? They may be taking up more room, because they're spread out, and there may be gaps in between them, but there are still six objects.

And I can convince you of that by counting: one, two, three, four, five, six.

Six was still the last number I said, wasn't it? Okay.

If I count that way, do you think I'll have six objects? Yes I will, won't I? 'Cause I haven't taken any away and I haven't brought any more in.

Let's check: one, two, three, four, five, six.

I have six objects all together.

Wow, we're getting good at this, aren't we? What about if I moved these three close together and that there, that there and that there? One, two, three, four, five, six.

I still have six objects.

Did you notice how I touched them as I said, each number? Does it matter that some of my objects are big and some of my objects like this ring are small? It doesn't, does it? This is still one teddy bear, whether he's teeny weeny or huge.

And this is still one ring, even though it's small.

For your talk task, I'd like you to practise what we were just doing.

As you practise it, you'll practise your counting skills and realise that it doesn't matter if things are close together or far apart, you still have the same amount.

Now for this task you could use your counters or your chocolate buttons if that's what you found.

Or you could have a quick look around the room you're in now and maybe find some things you would like to count.

What are you going to do is you're going to count them close together, just like we did a minute ago.

And you're going to say: one, two, there are two objects.

Maybe you're going to have more than two there.

Then you're going to move them far apart.

And then you're going to count them again: one, two, there are still two objects.

The number is still the same.

And then you might let's try it with some more objects or more counters.

So now you know what you're doing.

Pause the video and have a go and then come back to me.

How did you get on with the talk task? Did you count lots of objects? Are you getting really good at counting up to six, touching each object as you count? Did you find like I did that it didn't matter if your objects were close together or far apart, you still had the same total amount, as long as you hadn't taken any away or brought any more in? Now, we don't always count objects.

Sometimes we might count pictures.

Sometimes we might count dots.

Like the dots on my screen right now.

They actually remind me of something.

Do they remind you of anything? They remind me of a dice and maybe you've used one of these to play a board game.

I've played a lot of board games and I quite quickly know what number I've got, if it lands on one of them, maybe they're quite new to you.

And maybe you're still somebody who might count them to find out how many spaces you need to move.

That's fine.

And one day you will know how many this means.

It means five.

So take a look at my dots on the screen.

What number do you think each set of them represents? Okay, find me the number one.

Are you pointing to it? Here's number one.

Find the number two.

Looks the same as on my dice, doesn't it? Find the number three.

Well done! Now have a look for the number five.

Oh, you thought I was going to say four? I'm on number five now.

I was trying to trick you.

This is the number five.

Have a look now for that number four, it looks like that.

And there's one number left, what we haven't found yet is this one.

And what number does this represent? It represents six.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

There are six dots on my dice.

This represents six.

Have one last look at the dots on the screen, 'cause I'm going to cover them up.

Ready? Got them in your brain.

Let's cover them up.

They went three, one, four's gone and five's gone.

Now, I'm going to show you one super quickly.

I'd like you to shout at me what number it is as quick as you can, before I cover it up again.

So, ready, steady, go! What number was it? It was number six! Well done! I think I gave you too long.

I'm not going to give you as long next time.

Ready, steady, go.

what number was that? It was number three! Well done.

What we were just doing was called subitizing, and that's what you're going to do in your independent learning.

Subitizing is where we can just see a number often without having to count the dots.

So when I said that I knew that that was number five, I was subitizing.

I didn't have to count the dots.

When I know that that's number four, I just know, I don't have to count the dots.

Now, the patterns on a dice, they're quite regular ones.

You'd see them on just about every dice, a two would look like this, a six would look like that, but we can actually subitize any number in any formation.

So your job in your independent learning is to use your counters, just like I have on the screen, where I have subitized the number four in all these different ways.

Each group of dots actually represents number four.

I just moved them into different patterns, different arrangements.

I wonder if you could do that now, for every number up to and including six.

I'd love to see your arrangements of number six.

I bet you can do lots and lots of different ones.

So pause the video now to do your independent learning and then come back to me.

Welcome back from your independent learning.

I hope you got some wealth with the subitizing.

Maybe you'll just start to see numbers around you and you won't always have to count.

Now, we don't always count, do we? Sometimes we have the numbers written for us, too I've got two number tracks here.

They both have the numbers one, two, three, four, five, and six on them.

The only difference is the bottom one has a number covered up.

What number do you think is written under there? That's right, it's number one.

We know that because the number track above it has a number one in the same space.

Let me cover another one up.

Okay.

What number's covered up now? is it's the number at the end of our number track, even though number tracks could go on forever, our one stops at six today.

And we think number six is missing, don't we? Let's find out.

It is! Number six was our missing number.

Good at this.

Hmm, let's see if it's quite as easy without the other number track.

Let me cover some numbers up.

This time, there's two missing numbers.

Do you know what's missing? We could start at the beginning and say one, two, three, three is missing.

One, two, three, four, five, five's our other missing number, isn't it? And we've got six there.

Let's see.

There's our number five.

Is one missing six? And there is a number three.

I want to say a great big thank you for joining me for your math lesson.

It's been great fun! And if you would like to share any of your work with me and everybody at Oak National, you could ask your parents or carer to do it on social media for you.

All the details you need are on the screen right now.

And all that's left for me to say is, bye!.