How a Thanksgiving Visit Can Teach 1-to-1 Correspondence

Grandma and Grandpa were coming for a visit, so I revisited my mini-library of favorite classroom books to read with my young son. He was very excited about the visit, especially after reading The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.

He was particularly interested in where Grandma and Grandpa would sleep. Together we identified all of the beds in the house. Then we counted the number of people that would be here, including our 2 guests. Finally, we matched each person to a bed. This one-to-one correspondence practice is the foundation for basic counting.

A Great Real Life Example of Learning How to Count

I enjoy reading this book with my students around Thanksgiving, as many families have a reunion of some kind. The vocabulary is spectacular and the author’s voice is particularly realistic to kids. At one point, the narrator comments on the noise level of all of the breathing happening with all of those relatives in the house. It is also fun to see if they can identify and keep track of places for differing numbers of people to sleep in their home. Where would they put 20 relatives safely? Imagine all that breathing going on!

Tags: cynthia rylant, holiday math, learning to count, Math in children's books, teaching counting, Teaching Math, The Relatives Came

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