correspondence explained
Correspondence underpins counting as it allows you to understand that a number spoken out loud corresponds to a physical object. In the last two months we've looked at comparisons and number bonds; this month we are bringing all three concepts together:
- Correspondence helps children count accurately by matching one object to one number. For example, you point at the first button in a set and say ‘1,’ then point to the second and say ‘2’, and so on.
- Comparison allows them to evaluate and describe differences in two or more sets to decide which is greater, smaller or the same.
- Composition helps children understand how numbers are formed – for example, seeing they are not just reached by sequencing but can be built from smaller numbers.
correspondence in everyday play
Correspondence is best approached alongside play that incorporates comparisons, number bonds and patterns. It is a tricky concept to isolate, but the phrase ‘one at a time’ is helpful.
- Set out a picnic area with dolls’ or full-size tea set cups and saucers and food items. As children match the cups and saucers and offer one set of each to one child (or dolly), they are showing correspondence skills; they can also then share the food equally, counting one item onto one plate at a time and recognising that numbers are sequenced in order.
- Wellington boot maths: examine the numbers on the boot soles and explain that each foot size has its own number. Do children know what their shoe size is? Collect the boots into piles with the same number on the sole. How many are in each pile? Children should recognise that the last number they count to in each pile is the ‘total’ and that it doesn't matter which boot they count first or last, there will be the same quantity. Now match the boots into pairs. Use a marker pen to write the size on each boot and peg the tops together for added fine motor skill practice!
- Now the wellies are sorted, on a rainy day, draw numbers adjacent to puddles and let children jump in them the corresponding number of times, counting aloud for each splash. Can children make one bigger number by jumping in two ‘smaller’ puddles?
- In the mud lab or kitchen, add hooks to hang implements and pans from, and add pictures of the items – when children help to clear up at the end of play, they are matching and corresponding. Write simple recipes on card or a chalkboard, and encourage children to make their pies or potions with accurate quantities of ingredients – e.g., six scoops of mud, four mint leaves. Experiment with different quantities to see what happens.
- Familiar songs often include numbers and counting – add finger movements to songs like ‘once I caught a fish alive’ and ‘five little men in a flying saucer’.
outdoors and active
If you have playground markings, or can create them with chalk, hoops and other loose parts, outdoor games are a great way to reinforce correspondence. And two benefits of taking traditional board games outdoors are that they can be created on a much larger scale, enabling more children to participate – and playing will add whole-body movement.
- Snakes and ladders, hopscotch and dominoes are helpful in lots of ways: matching numbers, counting in sequence, comparing sizes and one-to-one correspondence. Skipping is perfect for helping children assign numbers to one item.
- Chalk a giant ten square on the ground (or make one with ropes), labelling each square from one to ten. Send children off to scavenge ten items of a different set of objects, e.g., ten pine cones. Give each child a unique number and ask them to place the corresponding number of their objects into the ten square. Examine the different quantities to understand that each number corresponds to a different number of objects. How many objects do they have left in their collection? Can they rearrange their collections in different ways to make ten?
- Throw two inflatable dice into the air and repeat a movement the number of times indicated – for example, three star jumps.
maths in the garden: growing broad beans
Are there any flowers on your broad beans yet? They are probably growing really fast now and children should be busy making observations and recording growth. Use magnifiers to get up close to the leaves and flowers, looking for individual parts of the plant such as petals or fine hairs on the stem.
The beans will need bigger pots now, so repot them carefully and change to longer support canes, remembering to add cane toppers to protect everyone's eyes when they inspect the plants. Your beans have been growing in a lovely cosy room, so will need to harden off in a cool, bright place before they can be planted in the ground next month.
- Count the leaves on each plant: do the taller plants have more leaves than smaller ones?
- Are the biggest leaves at the top of the beanstalk or the bottom?
- Write the total number of leaves on each plant, on its new pot. Come back each week and count again – can children spot which leaves are new? Photographs to look back on will help!
reinforcement strategies
Correspondence is one of the harder maths concepts to capture in action. Here are some successful ways we have seen practitioners scaffold ideas:
- Children learn these concepts at different rates and it may take many months of repetition for correspondence to be grasped. Songs and rhythmic games that children know well can help. Make them movement-based and use touch or pointing where possible to emphasise matching.
- Practise counting in sequence with objects in a tidy row, and then with objects arranged haphazardly or far apart. As children move between distant objects outdoors, they should repeat the last number they counted so they can remember what comes next.
- Count slowly and place objects deliberately; use grids to collect and count before moving onto complex or random collections – muffind tins and ice-cube trays work well indoors and out. Offer equipment such as metre rules as part of continuous provision.
- In the sandpit and mud kitchen, model lots of maths vocabulary – ‘big’, ‘small’, ‘more’, ‘less’, ‘full’, ‘empty’, ‘equal’, ‘the same’. Experiment with quantities: children can misjudge quantities by focusing on physical size rather than number, for example, thinking a larger pile means more objects, even if there are obviously fewer (pebbles/gravel).
- Represent numbers in lots of different visual ways outdoors – as written digits, door or gate numbers, photographs of numbers made up with natural resources, using dots or dashes or five-bar gates, pictures of fingers – but make them meaningful and move them regularly so the number representations don't become ‘background’ and ignored.
