Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

One-to-one correspondence is an important math skill students learn in their early education. It involves learning to count a group of objects by assigning one number to each object and only counting each thing once. It’s typical for students to touch these objects or move them into a different pile as they count them one by one and develop an understanding of the question, ‘how many objects are there?’.

Learning about one-to-one correspondence will help your students develop an understanding of number values. When counting objects, each object can only be counted once and associated with one number. They will also learn that when counting objects, the number associated with the object that is measured last also tells us the total number of things. There are four main counting principles for your students to remember when learning to count objects. You’ll find these listed below.

The four counting principles

• Each object counted can only be assigned one number name. E.g., one, three, five.
• Number names must be used in a fixed order. E.g., one, two, three, four, five.
• It doesn’t matter which object is counted as the first or last object. There will always be the same amount of objects.
• The number name of the last object counted tells you how many objects there are in total.

We have loads of great resources to use when you’re teaching your students about one-to-one correspondence. Most of them are prep-free and can be used in class and home to help your students improve their counting and one-to-one correspondence skills.

One-to-One Correspondence vs. rote counting

It’s commonly misbelieved that rote counting and one-to-one correspondence are similar things. While both involve numbers, rote counting is merely the recital of a sequence of number names. For example, students can name numbers ‘one, two, three, four, five’ in a list, but they are not counting objects simultaneously. Instead, they have memorized the order in which number names are said.

One-to-one correspondence focuses on counting objects and assigning numbers ‘one, two, three, four, five’ to these objects in the correct order as they are calculated. This also helps students understand that the numbers they say hold value.

Why is One-to-One Correspondence important?

Your students need to develop their one-to-one correspondence skills if they wish to progress on to other topics in math successfully. For example, without the ability to count and automatically match quantities to their representative numbers, your students could struggle to solve even the simplest math problems.

Learning how to match quantities automatically to number names enables students to spend more time focusing on the content of the math problem and less time on figuring out what the numbers are by counting every object individually. For example, as an adult, we can look at dice and know that all the sides of that dice hold a different number value, and we automatically know this number by looking at the amount of dots on the side of the dice.

Bullet points are Organizational Devices that use small dots or symbols to indicate separate items in a list, sentences, or paragraphs.

Bullet points should have capital letters and full stops if they are full sentences.

For example:

• The capital of England is London.
• The largest city in France is Paris.

If your bullet point is part of a list of nouns, you can separate them with a semi-colon if you wish. You could also write your bulleted list without punctuation if they are single words.

For example:

A list of fruit:

• strawberry;
• apple;

Reading materials can be found anywhere and everywhere. Children typically have access to books as their primary reading material in the classroom, giving them wide access to different reading levels, stories, and genres. In addition, children can use many other types of reading materials to practice their developing reading skills. However, finding more options for different reading materials can help support reluctant or struggling readers. These include:

• Magazines: Many great magazines for kids at the corner shop are available for digital downloads.
• Comic books: Don’t discount the power of comics to hook kids on reading. They are a great way to teach your children about the back-and-forth of dialogue.
• Newspapers: You can find human interest or local story articles in any newspaper to share with your children and students. This can help develop their reading skills and understanding of the surrounding community.
• Play scripts: Explore what it might be like to be on screen or stage by reading a few scripts together. You can even put on a play after reading them.
• Poetry: Grab a collection of poems or sit down and write some with your children. Rhyming is an important skill for reading, and having your children write poems on their own is a great way to build that skill.

Finding the right genre for the individual student can be the best way to encourage your student to read in their leisure time. These include:

• Mystery/ Detective fiction: Mystery fiction is a story or narrative in which something unexpected or unexplained happens, and the characters work towards solving the mystery. Mystery fiction stories are good for engaging children with books and literature, as they are encouraged to keep reading to conclude the mystery.
• Science fiction: Science-fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi or SF) is speculative fiction. These stories typically deal with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial (alien) life. Science-fiction stories are very popular with young children as they are filled with imagination, adventure, and discovery – everything you might want in a story!
• Fantasy: Fantasy is a genre of fiction that typically, taking inspiration from myth and legend, is set in a fictional universe and features supernatural characters and mythical creatures. Fantasy stories are a wonderful escape from the norm, making them popular with children. As fantasy stories often feature more complex storylines with mysterious characters and plots, they provide excellent reading practice and a great genre for writing practice.
• Adventure Stories include something exciting and extraordinary, often a quest or a mission. Follow a brave hero through twists and turns you never expected from escaping some danger, going on a quest to discover something mystic and magical. Reading adventure stories in the classroom and at home is a fantastic way to encourage your students to get lost in a good book.

The cell wall is a tough outer case of cellulose that helps support the plant and gives the cell a rigid structure. In addition, the cell wall provides protection and form to the cell and its contents.

What is the function of cell walls?

Cell walls provide strength and structure. The structure protects everything inside the cell – the cell membrane, nucleus, nucleolus, mitochondria, chloroplast, cytoplasm, and large vacuole – and its strength allows plants to grow tall.

Cell walls also provide structure and strength to the living things they make up.

The material of the cell wall allows very small molecules to pass through into the cell to spread water and carbon dioxide around the plant.

What are cell walls made of?

Cell walls are made of long cellulose, pectin, and hemicellulose molecules. Cellulose is made of specialized sugar, but it isn’t used to give living thing energy. Instead, this sugar is a ‘structural carbohydrate’ which doesn’t dissolve in water, meaning that it can form long chains which give plants support as they grow.

Some cell walls are divided into primary and secondary cell walls. The primary cell wall is more permeable, allowing things that are needed to pass into the cell. But the secondary cell wall makes the cell stiffer and stronger by adding an extra layer of cellulose.

Did You Know…? Sometimes not even eating a plant can destroy the cellulose to make energy. This is because certain bacteria in the stomachs of herbivores allow them to digest the plants they eat.

Do all cells have cell walls?

No, not every type of cell has a cell wall. The cell wall provides strength and structure that supports plants as they grow larger, allowing them to keep their weight. Animal cells don’t need to do this as animals have skeletons and cartilage, which do this and provide the form.

These types of cells have cell walls:

• plant cells;
• bacterial cells;
• fungal cells;
• algae cells.

Two facts about cell walls

• Have you ever wondered why plants bounce about in the wind and can return to their original shape? The cell walls in plant cells have elastic properties, which allow smaller plants and leaves to bounce back into shape.
• A cell wall is constructed of fibers that form in different directions to strengthen the wall.

Why Do We Classify Different Plants?

Living things can be grouped according to their different characteristics. This makes understanding them much easier. We call the method of grouping classification. Each group is called a class.

Classifying living things is called taxonomy, and people who carry out classification are called taxonomists.

Plants are complex living things vital to life on Earth.

We are learning more about plants, how they have evolved, and how they relate to one another daily. While taxonomists used to rely on physical characteristics to classify plants into different groups, scientists today can use other methods to understand truly how different related plants are to one another.

There are over 320,000 kinds of plants – so that’s a lot of research!

The Diversity of Plants

We can group plants into two major groups: those that produce seeds and those that don’t. Most plants on our planet produce seeds, which has helped them thrive.

• Ferns and mosses do not produce seeds.
• Flowering plants and conifers do produce seeds.

What’s in a name?

Linnaeus chose to use Latin for naming living things because, by 1735, no one spoke Latin. This meant there was no preferential treatment of any language, and scientists from all over the world could understand each other more easily when referring to the same organism.

In Latin, the different plant groups are:

Non-seed bearing plants

• Pteridophytes – ferns
• Bryophytes – mosses, hornworts, and liverworts

Spermatophytes – seed-bearing plants

• Angiosperms – flowering plants
• Gymnosperms – conifers

What are Facts About Different Plants?

1. Pteridophytes around the world. These are ferns, plants like spikemosses, and horsetails. They have leaves known as fronds. They can be small plants on the forest floor or tall tree ferns with trunks.
2. Over 20,000 named species of Bryophytes live on our planet. They reproduce by releasing spores. As a result, they are crucial to ecosystems around the world. For instance, sphagnum moss helps keep soil healthy, moist, and nourished, allowing other plants to grow.
3. If you’re looking at a plant outside, it’s probably an Angiosperm. They are the most diverse group of land plants: over 300,000 known species! From the huge corpse flower to carrots, they have characterized life on earth for over 140 million years.
4. Gymnosperms dominated life on earth before flowering plants took over. You’d have seen many gymnosperms like conifers around during the age of the dinosaurs. The biggest trees in the world are gymnosperms, like giant sequoia.
5. Seaweed and kelp aren’t plants! They are algae. Algae was included in the classification of plants for centuries. However, algae are very diverse and hard to define. It’s neither plant, animal, or fungi – but green algae share many similarities with green plants.

Are you looking for a great Romeo and Juliet summary for kids? Then look no further!  Below you will find a great summary (a short piece covering the main points) that can help you understand Shakespeare’s tragic play.

Romeo and Juliet are one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. It is about two ‘star-crossed lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The play begins with a fight between two families (the Montagues and the Capulets). Later, a group of Montagues sneaks into a masquerade ball at the Capulets’ house. Finally, Romeo and Juliet fall in love and plan a secret wedding.

Unfortunately, the families have another fight, where Romeo kills Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) and is banished. Juliet’s father tells her that she must marry Prince Paris. She takes a sleeping potion and pretends to die to avoid the wedding. Romeo turns up and thinks she is dead, so he takes poison and dies. Juliet wakes up and finds Romeo dead, so she kills herself with a dagger. At the end of the story, the two families agree to stop fighting.

Themes in Romeo and Juliet

No Romeo and Juliet summary for kids is complete without looking at the key themes. Key themes are different throughout the book, such as war, crime, or love.

There are many different themes in Romeo and Juliet, including:

• love
• infatuation or intense passion
• hate
• youth
• fate

Proper nouns are a subcategory in the word family called ‘nouns.’ They are nouns that describe specific or one-of-a-kind people, animals, places, objects, ideas, or things. These things can either be ‘concrete,’ meaning that they physically exist, or they can be ‘abstract’ (e.g., emotions and feelings).

What are common and proper nouns?

In English, every noun is either a proper or common noun. Common nouns refer to a class, or group, of the same type of people, animals, places, things, and ideas. Some examples of common nouns include:

In English, each noun fits into ‘proper nouns’ or ‘common nouns.’ Let’s look at both and uncover their differences with some examples.

Common nouns always refer to a ‘class’ or ‘group’ of the same type of object, animal, place, etc. Some examples of common nouns include:

• girl
• city
• cat
• company
• Spaceship

Proper nouns always refer to a specific member of that group:

• Jane
• Madrid
• Tommy’s Cat
• Tesla Cars

Using proper nouns

Once you spot the key features of a proper noun in a sentence, they are easy to use. Next, add them to a sentence in the same way you would a common noun.

Remember! If you use proper nouns, you might need to include a determiner

Determiners are words that are often placed in front of nouns to make the word more specific; some common determiners include:

• A
• The
• Every
• Second
• Some

Though proper nouns don’t always need determiners, common nouns regularly do.

Examples of proper vs. common nouns

To answer the questions ‘what is a proper noun’ and ‘what is a common noun,’ look at the following examples. Notice how the proper nouns are both:

• Referring to something specific
• Always capitalized.

Common nouns require determiners more frequently than proper nouns do.

• Proper: Jeremy went to the shops.
  Common: The boy went to the shops.

• Proper: Let’s throw this ball so that Rover can fetch it!
  Common: Let’s throw this ball so the dog can fetch it!

• Proper: I had Cornflakes for breakfast.
  Common: I had cereal for breakfast.

• Proper: My brother just came back from Australia.
  Common: My brother just came back from another country.

• Proper: I bought a new iPhone.
  Common: I bought a new smartphone.

Confusing proper nouns

While it is normally relatively simple to tell proper and common nouns apart, there are some instances where it is less clear which category the noun belongs to.

This could be because the noun in question can be put in either category depending on the situation or because the noun was originally a proper noun and is now often used as a common noun.

But, we still need to determine whether these nouns are proper or common when writing them to know whether to capitalize them. Bearing this in mind, let’s look at some of these confusing proper nouns and see how we can determine whether they are proper or common.

Family relationship nouns

One particularly tricky noun group is nouns that indicate a familial relationship between two people. For example, many writers, including accomplished adult writers, frequently ask themselves, “is it Mum or mum?” or “is Uncle or uncle better here?”.

This is because these nouns can be either proper or common, depending on the context.

One way to determine whether a particular instance of a family relationship noun is a proper noun is to try swapping it for a different adequate noun and see if the sentence works grammatically.

For example, if we take this sentence:

I think mum is in the shed.

And replace ‘mum’ with the proper noun ‘Sharon’:

I think Sharon is in the shed.

We can see that the sentence is grammatically correct, which therefore suggests that ‘mum’ is a proper noun in this instance and should be capitalized:

I think Mum is in the shed.

On the other hand, if we take this sentence:

I’ve heard that your uncle is great at knitting.

and you replace ‘uncle’ with the proper noun ‘Stuart.’

I’ve heard that your Stuart is great at knitting.

Brand names

Another group of nouns can confuse certain brand names.

Most brand names are proper nouns, as they are the names of specific companies or company sub-sets.

However, there are a few brand names that we have come to use to refer to whole groups of items, just like common nouns. For instance, the noun ‘Hoover’ is a proper noun, but it is also used to refer to vacuum cleaners. As such, it can be easy to forget that these are proper nouns, so that you might see sentences like this:

I can’t hear you; my dad has the hoover on.

This is incorrect capitalization. Although these brand names are being used like common nouns, they are still proper nouns and should be treated as such:

I can’t hear you; my dad has the Hoover on.

Seasons

Another confusing set of nouns is the seasons: summer, autumn, winter, and spring.

Many people assume that because we always capitalize the days of the week (Monday, Saturday) and the months of the year (January, May, October), the seasons, by extension, should also be capitalized.

As such, you will often see a sentence like this:

We like to visit the local gardens in the Spring.

However, this is incorrect. Seasons are common nouns and should only be capitalized at the start of sentences or as part of a title. Otherwise, sentences with seasons in them should look like this:

We like to visit the local gardens in the spring.

If this seems strange, remember that you can always try the proper noun test from above, where you replace the season with a known appropriate noun. So, if we replace ‘spring’ in the above sentence with ‘May,’ for example:

We like to visit the local gardens in May.

We can see that the resulting sentence is not grammatical and that ‘spring’ must not be a proper noun.

New Zealand native animals can be found in this island country in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand is known to be home to many native animals. These amazing creatures can be seen in the air, the sea, and the land, but some are so rare that just a few people can get a glimpse of them.

New Zealand broke away from the Gondwana supercontinent around 85 million years ago. The only way for animals to establish themselves was through flight, carried by the wind or floating over the ocean. Many New Zealand species adapted to their isolated, predator-free environment in unique ways.

That’s why many NZ native animals can’t be found anywhere else in the world. As a result, New Zealand is one of the countries that have the most native, unique animals.

What native animals live in New Zealand?

New Zealand is the home of many native birds, insects, reptiles, fish, and marine mammals. However, the only native land mammals in the country are bats. Here are some examples of native animals from all categories:

Birds

New Zealand has the most seabirds in the world, and some species of forest birds can be seen here. What makes these native birds so unique is that most of them can’t fly, and because there were not many land predators, they started to make their nests on the ground, not in the trees. Some popular NZ birds are:

• Kākāpō are large, nocturnal, flightless parrots. They have green feathers, a pale face, and a large grey bill.

• Kea is a large, intelligent parrot, the world’s only alpine parrot. It has an olive-green colored body, with orange under wings and a thin grey bill.

• Kiwi is nocturnal birds that don’t fly and live on forest floors. It has hair-like feathers, strong legs, a long bill, and no tail. Kiwi is one of the most famous birds in NZ.

• Morepork is the only NZ native owl. It’s a small owl with speckled brown feathers, a dark face, yellow eyes, and a short tail.
• Pūkeko is one of NZ’s most recognized birds. Pukeko is a dark blue bird with a red bill and red eyes, and long, orange legs

• Tūī has black feathers that have a blue-green sheen. Tui also has a small white under their chin called a poi.

Reptiles and frogs

New Zealand has four native frogs species:

• Hochstetter’s frog
• Archey’s frog
• Hamilton’s frog
• Maud Island frog

These frogs are all nocturnal. They are small and hard to see because they are good at camouflaging themselves. New Zealand’s frogs are different from others because they have no outside eardrums or round eyes and don’t croak often.

You can find three types of native reptiles that made NZ their home:

• Tuatara is reptiles that are only found in New Zealand. They are medium-sized and grey-green with spines along their neck, back, and tail. There are two types of tuatara; the common tuatara and the Brothers Island tuatara.

• Geckos are lizards with broad heads and large, bulging eyes. They have soft skin with small scales. There are at least thirty-nine species of gecko in New Zealand, divided into two main groups. The “hoplodactylus’ (brown) geckos are usually grey or brown with stripes or patterns and are mainly nocturnal. The ‘naultinus’ (green) are generally bright green or yellow and are active during the day.

• Skinks are slender, fast, and shiny lizards covered in fish-like scales. They have slim heads and small eyes with lower eyelids so they can blink. There are thirty-three types of skink that are only found in New Zealand. New Zealand’s skinks all give birth to live young and not eggs.

Invertebrates

Invertebrates have no backbone or spinal cord, and NZ has a diverse and significant population. They are essential for ecosystem conservation and are crucial for birds’ survival. Here are some examples of the most known invertebrates:

• Freshwater crayfish, also named Koura, are dark green and blotchy. They are well camouflaged in the stones on the bottom of streams. Koura is covered in a hard shell. The shell splits when they grow too big, and the new skin hardens to make a new shell. They have four pairs of walking legs and two pincers on the front pair.

• Flax snails, or Pūpūharakeke, are giant land snails. There are three species of flax snail in New Zealand. Flax snails have tall, pointy-spiraled shells that are brown and shiny.
• Weta is the Māori name for a group of insects similar to crickets and grasshoppers. They have spiny legs, curved tusks, and no wings. There are over 70 weta species, and they are only found in New Zealand.

Marine mammals

New Zealand waters include tones of dolphins, seals, and whales. Half of the world’s cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) live around this country. Some of them are:

• Maui’s dolphin is a subspecies of Hector’s dolphin. It’s the smallest and the rarest dolphin in the world. It has a rounded back dorsal fin, grey-black and white markings, and a short snout. Maui’s dolphins are usually found in the shallow waters on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
• Orcas or killer whales are not whales. They are the most prominent member of the dolphin family. Orcas are black and white with large, paddle-shaped fins. Groups of orca are called pods. Orcas live all around New Zealand’s coastline but prefer more relaxed, deeper water.

• New Zealand’s sea lions, or Rāpoka/Whakahao, are one of the rarest seals in the world. New Zealand’s sea lions look like most other sea lions but have short snouts and whiskers. Male sea lions are dark grey or brown, with a mane of thick fur around their neck. Females are lighter grey with darker flippers. Sea lions live on the coast of the South Island and around the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island.

• Kekeno, the fur seal, is one of New Zealand’s most common seals. They are covered in two layers of fur: a dark grey/brown on most of their body and a lighter color on their stomach. Fur seals have pointy noses and long, pale whiskers. Fur seals are found on rocky shorelines throughout New Zealand.

Land mammals

The only land mammals that are native to NZ are bats. Two species of bats can be seen in the country:

• The long-tailed bat, Pekapeka, is one of only two native New Zealand land mammals. It is a small dark brown bat with short rounded ears and a tail that is as long as its body. Long-tailed bats live in native forests throughout New Zealand.
• The lesser short-tailed bat is a native New Zealand Life Swan mammal. It has pale grey-brown fun, long, pointy ears, and a short tail. Lesser short-tailed bats are found in native forests in only a few places in New Zealand. They roost in hollow trees, either individually or in groups.

What are New Zealand animals extinct?

Since the European settlement of New Zealand in the 19th century and the Maori arrival before that, the list of New Zealand’s extinct animals is unfortunately quite long. Here are some New Zealand extinct animals that are no longer native to the area:

• Laughing Owl – Extinct since 1914. Their call has been described as ‘a loud cry made up of a series of dismal shrieks frequently repeated’.
• Lyall’s Wren – Extinct since 1894. It is the best known of the four flightless passerines (songbirds) known to science, all of which were inhabitants of islands and are now extinct.
• Eastern Moa – Extinct since the 16th century. Its feet were exceptionally wide compared to other moas, making it a very slow creature.
• Haast’s Eagle – Extinct since the 16th century. It was the largest eagle known to have existed. Its massive size is explained as an evolutionary response to the size of its prey, the flightless moa.
• Adzebill – Extinct since the 16th century. They were flightless and had extremely reduced wings, smaller than those of the dodo compared to the birds’ overall size.

What are the different types of number properties?

There are four main types of number properties. These only apply when we’re adding and multiplying them together:

• Commutative
• Associative
• Distributive
• Identity

Each of these refers to a different rule for dealing with numbers. So let’s look at these words and how they can help us solve maths problems.

What is a Commutative Property?

When we talk about number properties being commutative within addition, this means that no matter which way around you add the numbers, the answer will always be the same. For example, 4+9 is the same as 9+4. Both will give you the solution of 13.

In multiplication, the same rule applies. So whether you do 5×4 or 4×5, you will always get 20 as the answer.

To describe this to your class, you could provide a real-life example of some activities you might do during the day. For example, if you complete some science homework and then watch TV, this will have the same outcome as watching TV and doing science homework. Both tasks will still be completed!

What is an Associative Property?

When we discuss associative properties in addition and multiplication, we’re talking about joining or combining numbers. This means that numbers can be grouped (or ‘associated’) in any order to get the same answer.

For example, if we have the problem of 6+5+8, that’ll give us an answer of 19. We could reach this by adding together 6+5 first to provide us with 11 and then adding 8. We could do 5+8 first to get 13 and then add 6. So no matter how we choose to do it, we’ll always reach 19.

When it comes to multiplication, you can do the same! For example, if you have a problem of (6×2)×3, this will give you 12×3=36. If you instead choose to solve it as (3×6)×2, you’ll get 18×2=36. No matter how you combine the numbers, you’ll always come to the same answer.

Associative law is beneficial when it comes to breaking up more complicated multiplication problems. For example:

16×8

2×8(×8) or 8×8(×2)

64×2=128

What is a Distributive Property?

Distributive properties in numbers involve multiplying a number by adding a group of numbers. Doing this, it’s equal to multiplying the number by every individual number within the group.

For example, you could have three boxes of eggs and three bags of apples, with eggs weighing 150 grams and apples weighing 500 grams.

If you wanted to find out the total weight, you could work out 3×150=450 and 3×500=1500 to give you an answer of 1950 grams. However, you could also calculate this as 3×(150+500) or 3×650=1950. Either method will provide you with the same solution.

Summarised, 3(150)+3(500) is equivalent to 3(150+500).

Learning these number properties will be particularly useful later in a child’s learning journey when introduced to algebra in secondary education.

What is an Identity Property?

This part of number properties will be the easiest for learners to grasp as it’s self-explanatory. In addition, this means that when we add zero to a number, it remains the same. For example, 7+0=7. It’s as simple as that!

In multiplication, it’s slightly different. With this property, when we multiply a number by one, we know that it will remain the same. An example of this is 5×1=5. In essence, when we only have one portion of a particular number, it is the same as that number.