Numbers are Fun!

Students are really catching on to representing a number (set) in a variety of ways and generating algebraic expressions.  You should try it with your child!  It's fun.  Choose a number between 10 and 20 and ask your child to show you a few ways he/she could represent that number  (Of course they should have counters to work with).  Today we did the number 12.  Students generated more possibilities than we had time to write, but here are a few:
6+6
10+2
1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
2+2+2+2+2+2
12+0 
10+10+4-2
10+10+4-2
13-1
4+4+4
3+3+3+3
5+5+1+1
7+5+1-1+1-1+1-1
12+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0 ...
Well, you can imagine how carried away they get when I'm the one doing the recording!  They get much better at grouping when they have to write it down.  Numbers are fun!