Colin Benoit
Introduction:
These cards are intended to help Primary age students explore the concepts of
quantity, equality, and inequality. They should reinforce students understanding that
quantities stay the same if they are moved or rearranged, the commutive property.
Students count and closely compare quantities. Each card depicts a number of pattern
blocks or Cuisenaire rods arranged into a specific image and has a matching card with
the same number of shapes represented in a more linear fashion. This tool was also
created to help support students’ understanding of the equal symbol, as many have
misconceptions about its meaning. Students place the matching pair on either side of
the equal symbol card to signal their quantities are the same.
This activity can be done individually or in groups. Students may need help from a peer
or adult starting out, but can move on to working independently eventually. An
alternative is to have students take just one card and then use pattern blocks or
manipulatives to represent the quantities pictorially or symbolically. This may be more
engaging or suited to the child’s ability level. The pattern block activities use curricular
topics from Grade 1 and 2 curriculum, while the Cuisenaire rods cards introduce topics
from the Grade 3 like the place value for 100s, 10s, and 1s. In these activities, students
will need to use counting strategies and mental math to keep track of quantities. They
will also need to use their understanding of place value to recognize that 2 tens and 7
ones are the same as 1 ten, 3 fives and 2 ones.
Explanation:
• Students start with an equal symbol card (=). Then draw a number of cards or
lay them out in front of them.
o If a student needs extra guidance a teacher or EA can place just two
cards at a time in from of them, and ask them to identify if they are
equal.
• The goal is to match each picture with the card that has the same amount of
shapes represented on it, and represent this by putting them on either side of
the equals symbol.
• Alternatively, students can use pattern block manipulatives to recreate the
image/ pattern next to each card.
B.C. Curricular Competencies:
• Develop mental math strategies and abilities to make sense of quantities
• Model mathematics in contextualized experiences
• Develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play,
inquiry, and problem solving
• Visualize to explore mathematical concepts
• Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms
• Estimate reasonably
B.C. Curricular Content:
• Number Concepts to 100
• Change in quantity, using pictorial and symbolic representation
• Symbolic representation of equality and inequality
• Place Value: 100s, 10s, and 1s
• understanding the relationship between digit places and their values
• Verbally describing a change in quantity
Adaptions and Extensions:
To address the curricular competency of connecting and reflecting, have students talk
through their thinking in partners or groups, so they can work on sharing and evaluating
their strategies and solutions.
The shapes on the card could easily be adapted to depict different figures or characters
of children’s different interests. The cards could also be used to teach financial literacy,
by having kids make sense of different amounts of money represented with various
combinations of coins and bills.
Instead of using manipulatives like blocks student could use materials gathered outside
to create concrete of pictorial representations of quantities.
This activity could be adjusted for older grades’ curricular content, for example, students
could use the card to match geometric shapes, multiplication or division questions with
the same answers. Older students could also create their own cards to test their friends.