After emptying all the seeds from our pumpkin, We wondered how many seeds we have. We decided to count and find out. But first, we had to come up with a strategy.
Group 1’s strategy: (Ada, Nick, Tomasz, Altai, and Emmi)
This group decided to count the seeds by 10s. They made small piles of 10 and then combined them into a large pile when they had 10 piles of 10 or 100 seeds altogether. Finally they added the groups of 100 together. This group had a total number of seeds after their first attempt at counting.
Group 2’s strategy: (Safir, Tim, Soeun, Alexandra, and Julia)
Each person got a pile of pumpkin seeds. They took turns to count their own pile of seeds. The first person counted their seeds and then the second person continued starting with the next number and so on.
Group 3’s strategy: (Alex, Amie, Gabi, Veronika, and Soek)
This group also counted by 10s. They sorted the seeds into piles of 10 and when they had 10 piles or 100 seeds altogether they put them into a bowl.
After counting, each group shared their results and strategies.
What we noticed about our strategies:
Ada: “Group 1 and 3 had similar strategies by counting in 10s either putting each 100 seeds into a bowl or pile.”
We agreed that counting by 10’s is an easier way when counting many objects. We will continue to explore different strategies in the coming months.
Dear KZE,
I enjoyed reading about the different strategies you used to count the pumpkin seeds. I thought it was interesting to see that different people used different strategies. I liked how you took photographs and made a video to document your learning. When I watched your video I could see your different strategies. Thank you for sharing your learning. I love reading all about your learning on your blog!