General Information
Subject Area: Mathematics (B.E.S.T.)
Grade: K
Strand: Number Sense and Operations
Date Adopted or Revised: 08/20
Status: State Board Approved
Benchmark Instructional Guide
Connecting Benchmarks/Horizontal Alignment
Terms from the K-12 Glossary
- NA
Vertical Alignment
Previous Benchmarks
Next Benchmarks
Purpose and Instructional Strategies
The purpose of this benchmark is to develop students’ vocabulary for describing the position of objects in a set (i.e., ordinality). This benchmark reinforces further development of cardinality – even though objects in a set may switch positions, the total numbers of objects in the set remain the same.- For mastery of this benchmark, instruction does not need to include students writing the positional word names.
- Instruction includes specificity of sequence relative to the starting position and direction (first from the left, etc.)
- Instruction may include sets larger than five as students identify the positions first through fifth. (Many students may be comfortable with using the words sixth through twentieth.)
- Instruction includes the use of manipulatives and pictorial representations.
Common Misconceptions or Errors
- Students may not be able to connect the positional terms (first, second, etc.) to the object’s position after rearrangement.
- For example, a set from left to rights shows an elephant, pig and dolphin. When rearranged the students still identifies the dolphin as “third” regardless of sequence.
- Students may give similar objects the same order number especially if they are next to each other in the sequence.
Strategies to Support Tiered Instruction
- Instruction includes opportunities to build “stairs” using connecting cubes or square tiles in which attention is directed to noting that the third step is number 3, the fourth step is number 4, and so on.
- Example:
- Instruction includes relating ordinal language to everyday events.
- For example, using index cards in which an event from the students’ day can be drawn and labeled on each card. Student then arranges the cards in order and tell when the event takes place while incorporating use of the words “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and “fifth.”
Instructional Tasks
Instructional Task 1
In a group provide students with various objects to count, and ask them to count out and organize a given amount (no more than 20) into a line. Students’ sets should contain a mixture of objects, but all students should have the same total. Once students have counted their sets ask the students to identify various positions. It can be appropriate in the classroom to discuss positions beyond the fifth position. The group should discuss how their sets contain the same total, but the sets have different arrangements, and different objects at different positions. Rearrange the set and ask the students how many objects are in the set and which objects are now in various positions. Repeat the task as needed.
Instructional Items
Instructional Item 1
Which animal is in the fourth position starting from the left?
Instructional Item 2
Point at the carrot that is in the second position starting from the right.
*The strategies, tasks and items included in the B1G-M are examples and should not be considered comprehensive.