Cats and Dogs

The youngest students have been exploring different ways to make 12.  In class we've had discussions and demonstrations of how if we had 12 cats and dogs, that could be represented with pictures and numbers.  Each student was challenged to find all the ways to make 12 with cats and dogs and then explain how they knew they had found all the different ways.  Some students used chips to help them count, some used their fingers, some did the counting in their head and others used the pictures of the cats and dogs.  Students are next practicing their skills with finding different ways to add to 11, 16 or 21 - using turtles and frogs!