In the video clip below, you will see children in Ms. Gaxiola's class transition from the rug to do some Counting Collections (see Counting Collections Overview for more information). Children have a variety of "collections" to choose from (see the different types of objects Ms. Gaxiola makes available) and they count these objects in whatever way makes sense to them (notice the different ways that children choose to count and organize their collection). Ms. Gaxiola chooses to interact with children and follow-up on their counting in a variety of ways as she supports them to build their understandings of counting and representing.

Note: As you support participants' engagement with this video, you might find that you want to 1) pause the video at strategic moments and encourage reflection and discussion, and/or 2) pose reflection questions after viewing the video that participants are asked to respond to in writing, with a partner, or with the group. We provide a range of questions/prompts below and encourage you to choose the one(s) that best fit your context and learning goals.

Possible Prompts to Pose to Participants

• Counting is a common activity in early childhood classrooms. In what ways is the activity of Counting Collections similar and different from other ways that counting is done in classrooms?
• What are the different ways you see children choosing to count their collection?
• What kinds of objects do you see children counting? How do the features of the objects support children to count in different ways?
• What are the variety of ways that Ms. Gaxiola chooses to respond to children's counting? How else might you respond?
• After viewing the video once, choose one focus student. Re-watch the video and write down what you learned about what this child knows about counting.

After children count their collections, teachers can ask them to represent their counting on paper (see Counting Collections Overview for more information about counting and representing). For example, a preschool teacher might say “Can you show your collection on your paper?  Can you draw it?”  The goal is to help children begin to connect their mathematical thinking (counting their collection to find how many) with ways of showing what they just did.  In the video clip below, Penelope has counted and then represented her collection by placing her cubes on paper and circling them.  Watch as Ms. Gaxiola engages Penelope in making connections between counting and representing objects.  

Teacher's Voice: The power of learning through observation
If you watch closely, you can pick up a lot more about what they understand. Sometimes children show you something in their representations that they aren’t yet able to talk about.            -Natali Gaxiola, preschool teacher

Pauses and Prompts During the Video

• [pause at 0:36]  What do you notice when Ms. Gaxiola asks Penelope to count them together?
• [pause at 0:51]  Penelope just counted all of the circles. What does Penelope know about counting? What did she do?

Possible Reflection Prompts After Viewing the Video

• What did you learn about Penelope’s counting?  What does she know?
• How did Penelope represent her collection?  What does this reveal about her understanding?
• Describe three moves Ms. Gaxiola used to support Penelope as she counted the cubes.
• What were some of different ways that Ms. Gaxiola supported Penelope’s to make connections between counting and representing?  

After children have counted and represented their collections (see Counting Collections Overview for more information), one common practice is for teachers to facilitate a "strategy share" so that children may share their work and engage with others' ideas. In the following clip, you will see Ms. Rawcliffe support Sophia to share her counting representation and the whole class to engage in her process of counting and representing.

Possible Prompts to Pose to Participants Before Viewing Video

• Have you invited children to count and represent collections? If so, how have you seen them engage with collections?
• Ms. Rawcliffe is going to facilitate a "strategy share" after children have counted and represented collections. Why might we facilitate this kind of a discussion? What decisions might Ms. Rawcliffe be considering, and towards what goals?

Possible Prompts to Pose to Participants After Viewing Video

• What did the teacher do to facilitate this discussion?
• What did you notice about how children were engaging in each others' ideas?
• What might have been Ms. Rawcliffe's goals for this particular conversation?
• At the end of the clip, you will see Ms. Rawcliffe getting ready to engage the class around another child's representation. What is similar and different about the two representations shown? What are some possibilities of what a third representation might look like?

Knox and Nora are children in a classroom regularly engaged in Counting Collections. Here is a short video clip highlighting the work that Knox and Nora are doing as they count and represent their collections at a table together, without an adult present. 

Possible Prompts to Pose to Participants

• What did you notice about:
  • what Knox knows and understands about counting?
  • what Nora knows and understands about counting?
  • how they engaged with each others' ideas?
• What kinds of experiences do you think Knox and Nora might have had in their classroom that supported their engagement with each other (and without an adult present)?