Description
Children can move on from Transport Counters to sort Bug counters or dinosaur counters which might be linked to a classroom theme. Names of the various dinosaurs and bugs are provided.
Teachers often use sorting bowls or sorting mats when using themed counters. To gain the most from these counters and counter in general see Counters in Classrooms.
128 pieces in 6 colours and 8 designs (brachiosaurus, euoplocephalus, spinosaurus, stegosaurus, parasaurolophus, pterodactyl, triceratops and tyrannosaurus rex). Orange and purple have two sets of dinosaurs, red, green, yellow and blue have 3 sets each.
About Themed Counters
In addition to standard round counters there is an assortment of ‘themed counters’ available.
Themed counters are an ideal manipulative to use when children are developing the ‘abstraction principle’ of counting.
Counting Principles 1 to 3
- Knowing the number names in a stable order
- One to one correspondence and the
- Cardinal principle, the last counting word is the total for the collection.
Should initially be taught with plain counters lined up in a row.
Principle 4, known as the ‘order irrelevance’ principle is designed to help children appreciate that you can count in any direction and start at any point.
The fifth principle involve abstracting the first 4 principles to apply to any seen objects (or things that might be heard e.g. claps). Themed counters are ideal for developing this abstraction principle.
Themed counters are ideal for developing children’s reasoning as they sort and classify. Children can sort by colour or shape or other attributes. They can move to sorting by more than one attribute.
- sorting, counting, patterning.
