Buttons for buttonholes

This activity contributes to:

• To develop the ability to use one-to-one correspondence to match two sets of objects exactly.

• To practise using tokens to facilitate one-to-one matching of sets of physically separated objects.
  

• To demonstrate the value of one-to-one correspondence in completing practical tasks.
  

• To foster the ability to parlicipate co-operatively in role play. 

• To develop the ability to select the required number of objects from a set.     

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ACTIVITY 

1. Stamp your foot once and ask the children to make as many claps as there were stamps, and repeat for different numbers of stamps and with different actions, e.g. winks, clicking fingers, clicks of the tongue. lf you have time ask the children to take the lead, choosing an action, performing it a number of times, and asking the group to make as many claps as there were winks, stamps, etc...

2. The focus of this activity is on helping the children to practise and secure the ability to match objects exacily using one-to-one correspondence. some children may already be learning to count; others may be learning to recite numbers without any grasp of the prerequisite underlying concepts. consequenily, if we want to ensure that the children are practising one-to-one matching, we need to inhibit counting.
For that, we are going to introduce "Greedy Gary the Number Guzzler". lf you hear counting produce Greedy Gary. Explain that Greedy Gary loves to gobble numbers, and that if he hears anyone saying a number he will come to eat it. lf you hear a child count, take Gary over to the child and whisper, "Greedy Gary has eaten your numbers, you can't use them".

Next, introduce the scenario. Bring out Cathy Counter and tell the children that she is feeling very sad today. She ordered new coats for all the dolls on internet, but when the parcel with the coats arrived she saw there was a problem.

Show the children a coat and ask if they can see what the problem might be and if necessary prompt them to notice that there are buttonholes but no buttons on the coats.
Tell the children they are going to help Cathy to solve her problem and explain
that there is a button shop in the classroom today and they are going to buy buttons from the button shop.

 3. Ask the children if they know how to buy exactly the right numbers of buttons (but without any counting).

Then, show them the procedure you want them to follow:

- Produce the box of tokens, and take tokens out of it one by one. 

- Match each token to a buttonhole. As you do so say "As many tokens as there are buttonholes". 

- Encourage the children to recite the phrase with you.

- Put the tokens in the "carrying box" and go to the shop and explain that now you are the shopkeeper and you will show them what the shopkeeper does. 

- Take the tokens out of the carrying box and lay them on a flat surface in the button shop. Táke buttons out of a button box, one at a time.
- Match each button to a token. As you do so say, "As many buttons as there are tokens." 

- Encourage the children to recite the phrase with you. Put the buttons into the now empty carrying box, take it to the coat, put a button on each buttonhole and show the children that you now have "as many buttons as there are buttonholes."

Next, return the tokens and buttons to their boxes.

4. Split the children into pairs: one is the shopper, the another is the shopkeeper. Send the shopkeepers to the button shop.

Then, give each shopper a coat, a carrying box and a box of tokens and ask the shoppers to take out "as many tokens as there are buttonholes."  

Have Cathy Counter come round to check that the children have taken the right number of tokens. lf someone has made a mistake, prompt the child to correct the error by saying "Cathy thinks you have some tokens left over" or "Cathy thinks there isn't a token for every buttonhole."

When the shoppers are ready have them put their tokens in the carrying box ready to go to the button shop, close the lids of the token boxes and put them out of reach. 

Tell the shoppers that when they get to the button shop they must take out the tokens, and ask the shopkeeper for "as many buttons as there are tokens." The shopkeepers now, match buttons to tokens and put the required number of buttons in the carrying box. The shoppers take the buttons back to the coats, put them on buttonholes and show Cathy Counter that they have in fact brought back "as many buttons as there are buttonholes". 

Cathy Counter helps the shoppers recognise and correct any errors before thanking the children for their help.
Swap shoppers and shopkeepers and repeat the game.

 RESOURCES