Ms Spain's maths groups have been learning about place value and the number system and exploring numbers up to one hundred and beyond.

Last week in Room 11 there were piles, boxes, bowls and bags full of .... stuff! Lots of stuff! There were blocks, cubes, and dice. There were pegs, pencils, bulldog clips and glue sticks. And the challenge for the children was to find out exactly how many there were.

Working in pairs the children soon discovered that counting large collections could be tricky. They told Ms Spain they needed a way to keep track of the numbers so they brought out whiteboards and pens. Then there was the problem of losing counting and having to restart from beginning. Some partners began grouping their 'stuff' into piles or rows of ten - a great discovery that quickly took off with all the counting crews.

The last discovery was the best though. Some pairs disagreed over the total when they counted.... and it turned out that they all knew about counting in tens. However, some children knew to change to counting in ones when they got to the remaining items there weren't enough to be grouped as a ten, and some didn't. 

All these discoveries left the children feeling very smart and capable when it comes to understanding numbers to a hundred. Well done team!