8331 /www/nrich/html/content/id/8331/ 1 0000-00-00T00:00:00 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <mdoxml version="1.0"><h3>Introduction</h3> <p>Children enjoy singing and saying rhymes and familiar stories. This activity illustrates the mathematics that can be drawn out of Ten Green Bottles as an illustration of the mathematical opportunities that one number rhyme offers.</p> <h3>The activity</h3> <p>Provide green plastic water bottles weighted with sand so that they stand up easily. Set them up in a row which all the children in the group can see.</p> <h3>Mathematical Opportunities/curriculum links</h3> <p>Recognizing the numbers of items in collections.<br></br> Counting down from 10 and counting up to 10.</p> <h3>The big ideas and their progression</h3> <h4>Counting and the properties of number<br></br> Using mathematical language about counting and number.</h4> <p>Examples: more, less, one, two, three four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, none, zero, next door numbers, the number neighbour, same different.<br></br> The children may need to hear the rhyme several times before they can confidently join in. developing their memory of the previous verse will support them in developing visualising skills.</p> <h4>Recognising pattern in the rhyme</h4> <p>The rhyme has a structure to it and the rhythm will help the children to memorise it. Developing memory will help them to learn number facts such as the number bonds to 20 and eventually their times tables.</p> <h4>Describing position</h4> <p>Examples: on, off, next to, before, after, left, right.</p> <h4> </h4> <h4>Understanding ordinal number and relating it to counting</h4> <p> </p> <p>Talking to the children about the bottles on the wall can help them to develop an understanding of ordinal number and its relationship with counting.<br></br> The children can count the bottles left on the wall and explore which one fell off first, second, third, fourth and so on. If some children in the group hold a bottle each then that will give the children a way of identifying each bottle without needing to give them written labels.<br></br>  </p> <h3>Encouraging mathematical thinking and talking:</h3> <p>Suggestion to put these in speech bubbles.</p> <h4>Generalising</h4> <p>What else might we count down? Why might we count down in another context?</p> <h4>Doing and undoing</h4> <p>As the bottles are taken down and put back to repeat the game, the process is done and undone many times. A variation would be to alter the rhyme to put the bottles back on the wall.</p> <h4>Predicting</h4> <p>How many bottles will be left when … more have fallen off?<br></br> How many bottles were there before the last two fell off?</p> <h4>Exploring, comparing and describing</h4> <p>What is happening to the number of bottles as each one falls off?<br></br> Which will be the last bottle to fall off?<br></br> How many more bottles need to fall for there to be … left?</p> <h4>Reasoning</h4> <p>How do you know that? Can you explain why?</p> <h4>Conjecturing - what if?</h4> <p>What if we added … bottles how many would there be then?<br></br> What if … more fell down, how many would there be then?</p> <h4>Mark making</h4> <p>Can you show me how many bottles there are on the wall?<br></br> Can you make a picture of the bottles on the wall?</p> <h4>Pattern sniffing</h4> <p>What happens to the numbers of bottles as the bottles fall of the wall?<br></br> If you count the bottles on the wall and the ones that have fallen down, what do you get?<br></br> Do you notice a pattern?</p> <h4>Visualising</h4> <p>Imagine how many bottles there will be on the wall if … have fallen off.<br></br> What are the resources?<br></br> Green plastic bottles partly filled with sand to weigh them down<br></br> Big or small sheets of paper and pens for recording results<br></br> Camera or video camera for recording results<br></br> You may consider using number cards or a number line/track but this will alter the outcomes of the activity and limit the opportunities for the children to focus on meaning and their own sense making skills.</p> <h3><br></br> Additional resources</h3> <p>Create interactivity with the rhyme animated and the bottles falling off the wall<br></br> Providing more opportunities<br></br> Number rhymes can be used as the basis for short teacher led sessions several times a week. They are a good way of encouraging the children to engage together as a group and to listen to adults in small groups so provide an excellent environment for developing the skills of being a good learner.<br></br> The rhyme ‘Ten Green Bottles’ is presented here as a teacher led activity. It might also be possible to model the activity and then let children play freely with the bottles.<br></br> Many other number rhymes involve counting back such as<br></br> Five currant buns in a baker’s shop<br></br> Five little ducks<br></br> Five fat sausages<br></br> <br></br> An extensive list of number rhymes can be found at:<br></br> A few number rhymes count up such as<br></br> One two buckle my shoe<br></br> One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive</p> <h3>Story, rhyme and song links</h3> <p>There are many illustrated books showing many of the common rhymes.</p></mdoxml> 2 3 0 0 0 0 0