Kindergarten - MATH
1: Letters
Unit 1: A - A Is for Musk Ox
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 1 has students match quantities (1, 2, 3) to number cards and then repeats the activity after the number cards are mixed up, which has students work with numbers presented out of order. The teacher asks students specific forward-counting questions: "What number is one more than 1?" and "What number is one more than 2?" The optional extension invites use of up to 10 objects, allowing practice beyond 1–3.
Unit 2: H - Hondo and Fabian
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 3 has students lay out two lines of animals (one with 3 and one with 5), count each line while assigning one number to each cat or dog, and decide which line has more or fewer. The directions encourage working left to right and repeating the activity with different numbers of animals. The Student Activity Page and counting image support hands-on counting practice with concrete items.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 1 has students lay out a row of 3 animals, match number cards, add one more, and then "count again to determine how many he has." The lesson also asks explicit questions: "What number is one more than 4?" and "What number is one more than 5?" Students practice reading the numbers 4, 5, and 6 and complete tracing and freehand writing of those numerals.
Unit 3: I - The Little Island
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to count 7 die-cut cats using slide-counting and to match each cat with a number card, and they trace and form the numbers 7, 8, and 9 on a number-writing sheet. The lesson also asks students explicitly, "What number is one more than 7?" and "What number is one more than 8?", prompting students to identify the successor of a given number.
Unit 6: F - Fireflies
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills section asks students to "understand that each successive number name refers to a quantity that is one larger" and to "given a number from 1-20, count out that many objects," which targets number-sequence understanding. Activity 1 has students count groups of pennies and models counting by tens: the teacher/model touches each group and says "10, 20, 30..." up to 100, then has the child practice the sequence. These parts require students to produce number sequences beyond simple enumeration from 1.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 2 asks students to practice counting by 10s to 100 and to count out a corresponding number of "fireflies" when given a number card. The activity also asks students to determine what the number of fireflies would be if they added one more, using numbers from 1–10 or 11–20. These prompts engage students in forward counting and identifying the next number.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 1 students place an initial set of pennies (1) in a bowl, then add groups of pennies (2, then 3, then 4) and are asked to count how many they have now. Students count the running totals after each addition (to 3, then 6, then 10), which involves continuing the count from the current amount rather than always starting a new unrelated count. The optional extension connects these counts to numeric equations (for example, 1 + 2 = 3), reinforcing the relationship between counting-on and addition.
Unit 7: E - But No Elephants
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students arrange the animal pictures in a line from left to right in the order they visited Grandma Tildy and are asked to tell the order using ordinal numbers (first, second, third...). The lesson asks specific questions such as "Who came third? Who came fifth?" and instructs the adult to assist the child to practice counting the animals using ordinal numbers. Students also verbally rehearse sentences like "First the ____ came to visit, second the ____ came to visit."
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 3 explicitly has students work with number cards 0, 2, 4, and 6 and asks them to sort animals by number of legs and count the number of animals in each category. The activity also asks students to "count the number of legs altogether in each category" and offers the extension to "count the number of legs by 2s," which has students perform sequential counting in steps of two.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students count ears and feet on pictured elephants and use the pictures as visual cues to determine totals (e.g., counting together for two elephants and discussing 2+2=4 and 4+4=8). Students are prompted to continue to determine the number of ears and feet for 3 and then 4 elephants, using the repeated images to count and relate quantities to written equations. The activity has students saying rhymes and counting body parts aloud while referring to numeric expressions.
Unit 8: C - Millions of Cats
Lesson 5
Day 5
The activity asks an adult and child to use a 100-number chart and to point to each number as they count together. The text instructs to note the highest number the child can count to and then continue on, pointing to each one as you count. The guidance to count in daily life (while walking, setting the table, etc.) encourages repeated forward counting practice.
Unit 10: O - Owl Babies
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students manipulate up to 10 bean "owls," are asked to count the total (10), and move owls on a mat to act out join problems (e.g., "Three baby owls flew to the tree. Then two more came. How many are in the tree now?"). Students also add or remove single owls (for example, moving one owl to the sky and reporting that there are now 9 in the tree) and repeat the actions. Students create and act out their own stories with the owls, providing additional opportunities to represent and count changing quantities.
Unit 11: S - Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students manipulate 10 red pom-pom "apples," move subsets to baskets, and are asked how many apples have fallen, with teacher-modeled equations such as 1 + 1 = 2 and 2 + 1 = 3. Students continue with combinations (for example, 3+2=5, 4+2=6, 8+1=9, 7+3=10, 5+4=9) and are encouraged to read and, if able, write the numerals and equations. These activities require students to work with numbers other than 1 and to determine totals from given parts.
Lesson 3
Day 3
In Activity 2, students count the 9 apples and then count 1 more to make 10, with the instruction: "Show her how to count the 9 apples followed by 1 more apple to equal 10 apples." The activity asks students to continue moving one apple at a time and write equations (9+1=10, 8+2=10, etc.), and it challenges students to choose a number between 1 and 10 for the left tree and figure out how many apples would be in the right tree if the total is 10. The Getting Started section also asks the child to evaluate 2 + 1 = 3, which prompts counting-on by one from 2.
Unit 14: B - Blueberries for Sal
Lesson 3
Day 3
In Activity 2 students count 10 "blueberries" into one pail and match them to a number 10 card. The teacher then shows the number 11 card and has the child add one blueberry to a second pail to show 11 = 10 + 1, and continues this process through 19. The child is later shown a number card from 11–19 and asked to read the number and count out that many blueberries using the pails.
Unit 17: M - Marshmallow
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 has students use a 1–100 chart and cover numbers through 15 by placing marshmallows on 1–10 and then on 11–15. The activity repeats with numbers 12 and other numbers from 11–19 and asks students to identify the additional ones (e.g., counting the remaining marshmallows on 11–15). The use of the hundred chart and placing marshmallows on 11–15 provides occasions for students to name and count numbers beyond 10.
Unit 19: J - Jump Frog Jump
Lesson 2
Day 2
The review asks the child to "count to 100 by 10s," which has the child produce a forward counting sequence beyond starting at 1. The finger-play "Five Little Speckled Frogs" has the child count down from 5, giving practice with number sequences and ordinal changes. No other activities explicitly ask the child to begin counting from a number other than 1 or 10.
Unit 20: K - Kindness
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's Skills list explicitly names the target skill: "Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence." Activity 1 has students number animal cut-outs in the order introduced, mix them up, and put them back in order from 1–9, which practices number sequence and ordering. The teacher calls out a number and asks the child to point to that number and to say what number comes after and before it, and also asks the child to read pointed-to numbers.
Lesson 2
Day 2
In the Getting Started Review the lesson directs: "Starting with the number 6, ask your child to continue counting to 20," which asks the child to begin counting from a given number and proceed forward. This instruction gives the child an explicit, spoken prompt to continue the known counting sequence (6, 7, 8, ...) up to 20.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The Getting Started review directs: "Starting with the number 9, ask your child to continue counting to 20," which asks the child to begin counting from a given number rather than from 1. The Apple Giveaway activity has the child remove a chosen number of apples and then find and write the number of apples remaining, asking the child to predict the number before counting, which requires counting objects to determine a quantity within a known sequence.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In the Review section students are prompted: "Starting with the number 2, ask your child to continue counting to 20." This prompt requires students to begin counting from a given number (2) and continue the known counting sequence up to 20.
Unit 21: V - Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 directs the child to find the trombone and choose the number card 1, then add the trumpet and change the number card to 2, and continue through the book up to number 10. The child lays out instrument pictures with matching number cards and ensemble labels, updating the number as each instrument is added. The steps require the child to count the instruments in sequence as items are added.
Unit 23: W - George Washington's Birthday
Lesson 3
Day 3
In Activity 2 (Tossing a Rock Across the River), students take turns tossing and catching a beanbag and saying successive counting words aloud: the adult says "one," the child says "two," and they "continue tossing and counting." The activity also asks students to "try to count by 10s as you catch," which has students produce number sequences aloud while performing an action.
Unit 25: X - An Extraordinary Egg
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 asks students to count to 50 while pointing to each number on a number chart and challenges them to count by tens to 50. The activity has the teacher point to several numbers between 1 and 50 and asks the child to say and practice reading those numbers. The child is also asked to find a given number between 1 and 50 and put a small object (an "egg") on that number.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 2, "What Comes Next?", has the adult choose a number between 1 and 99, have the child find that number on the Hundred Chart, and then ask the child to point to and name the next number and circle it. The directions explicitly tell the child to locate a given start number and identify the subsequent number in the sequence.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In the Review section students are asked to find the number 12 on the number chart and then are asked what comes next. Students are also asked to read the number 41 and then asked what comes next. These prompts require students to begin from a given number and identify the following number.
Unit 26: Z - Greedy Zebra
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 asks the child to arrange animals in rows of 10 and count how many there are (20), to remove 7 animals so there are 13 left and then count the animals and state how many groups of 10 plus how many more equal 13 (10+3=13). The addition story problem ("Four animals went walking... Three more animals joined them. How many... altogether?") gives an opportunity for the child to count on from a given starting number to find the total.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to number animal cards from 1 to 20 by writing one number on each sticky note and may use number cards as a guide to copy. Students are also asked to identify animals by their assigned numbers (for example, #5 and #18) and to choose several pairs of numbers for identification and comparison.
2: Holidays
Unit 27: Halloween
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 1 (Counting Ghosts) has students manipulate groups of 10 ghosts, with prompts like giving the child back 2 ghosts and asking how many more are needed to make 10, and repeating with 5 ghosts. The activity includes join problems such as "2 ghosts came out to play. 2 more joined them. How many ghosts are playing now?" and removal problems like "8 ghosts were playing tag. 3 stopped to get a drink. How many ghosts are still playing tag?" Students are encouraged to use the ghost manipulatives to find the answers.
Unit 29: Christmas
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are asked to count out five bells and string them on a pipe cleaner, providing practice with the counting sequence to five. Students chant the finger play "Five Little Bells" and hold up one through five fingers in sequence, reinforcing number order. Students are also instructed to "count each of the remaining bells as she adds them to the original five bells," which could involve continuing the count from the existing set.