Early numeration skills, such as spontaneously grouping objects to simplify the count, are part of the Defi-Maths curriculum in Grade 1 and 2. In this activity, students were given a random large amount of manipulatives, and were tasked with organizing them to be easily count and identify how many each team had. We can see that the two teams focused on different visual representations. One team thought making groups of 5, and setting them in a long line would be the simplest way to count. The other team made groups of 5, and then later switched to groups of 10 by adding two groups together. They thought that counting by 5s was taking too long, so counting by 10s seemed faster. Each team successfully counted the amount of manipulatives they were given, and learned from each other about organizing and sorting strategies.

Source:: Grade 2 & 3 Blog