Counting the stars

Educational activities

Make groups of 10.

The short film will be the starting point for a mathematics activity which will help students build their understanding of numbers through hands-on activities. Let the pupils express themselves freely about the film before stopping on the last image which shows the two characters hand in hand against a starry sky; it seems that they have found a shared happiness under the stars. Ask the students what the characters looking at the stars might be thinking about, what games they could play (imagining characters, shapes, etc.). If no one suggests it, the teacher will suggest that the characters might have liked to count the stars.

How could they go about it? Ask the students to take on the challenge. Reference: Les Fourmillions from the ERMEL team (age 6).

Possible progress

Material:

• Screenshot of the last frame of the film.
• Pasta in the shape of stars or any other object in large quantities that can symbolize them, at least 200 for 6-year-olds, up to 1000 for 7-year-olds.
• Envelopes in two different formats.
• Calculators kept available at all times (1 per team).

The teacher explains that to help them in their mission, he brought stars. He organizes the class into small groups of 4 or 5 students and distributes “stars” to each team. A whole-class discussion begins in which everyone can imagine a possible strategy. The teacher does not favour any one of them. Each team chooses its counting method before a class share-back that shows how effective grouping in tens is. The packets of 10 stars will be placed in the small envelopes. When all the groupings of 10 are made, the 6-year-olds will be able to count from 10 to 10 and the 7-year-olds will group 10 small envelopes into a large one in order to count from 100 to 100.

This situation may give rise to other mathematical activities such as comparing and ordering numbers, making exchanges like in the banker's game. More activities with the Heuristic Mathematics method...