Useful outcome: Include every object once; make and verify pairs; distinguish objects from groups.
Prepare: Twelve large marks for modelling; separate fourteen- and sixteen-mark sets; two spaces labelled waiting and counted. Use reusable drawn marks, large safe materials or directed adult movement. Read the ordinary pair aid if useful.
Notice · 3 minutes
Spread twelve marks. Ask: “How could we make these easy to count without losing any?” Accept a first one-by-one count. Move one already counted mark back; ask how that could cause a duplicate. This is a teacher demonstration, not a trick test.
Model · 5 minutes
Put twelve marks into six pairs. Check each pair really contains two. Move a pointer only once per pair and say/indicate 2,4,6,8,10,12. State: “Six names the groups; twelve names the objects. The last count includes all of them.” Do not count a pair and its two members as three objects.
Guided attempt · 8 minutes
Make fourteen as seven pairs, letting the child direct which marks belong together. Leave one pair uncounted and ask which group still needs inclusion. Count 2 through 14 with a completed-group pointer. Show the same set in a ring; spacing changes but object membership does not.
Own choice · 6 minutes
Choose one route; the child selects/directs the mathematical action. A different route is available later.
Route A · Library desk
Child task: Organise fourteen unordered pretend library-card marks in pairs and give the total.
Teacher move: Ask where completed pairs will go; let the child choose a counted/not-counted division.
Observe: All fourteen included once, seven verified pairs, cumulative 2 through 14; not merely seven.
Next move: If an object is missed/reused, use eight different marks in two spaces, then retry a new fourteen layout.
Route B · Game-box check
Child task: Direct an operator to put sixteen pretend game pieces into pairs and show the number of objects.
Teacher move: Move only the pieces named by the child; after pairing ask what the final number describes.
Observe: Child chooses the membership/count; eight pairs and sixteen objects are distinct.
Next move: If eight is reported as the total, audit one pair as two objects, then quantify a fresh ten-mark set.
Route C · Change the view
Child task: Move twelve marks from two rows to an own ring or other layout; check the total.
Teacher move: Change position without adding/removing and ask what stays the same.
Observe: One-to-one correspondence and twelve retained; new spacing does not add objects.
Next move: If layout changes the claimed amount, match original/rearranged marks one-to-one before a new small layout.
Exit and same-day next teaching · 3 minutes
Show four pairs without a numeral. Ask for the number of groups and objects, with a reason.
Teaching reference: Four groups, eight objects; each group has two.
Choose next: Keep the same grouping goal next session. Revisit one-to-one coverage before longer twos if objects are omitted; revisit unit meaning if the group count is mistaken for the total.
Retain the first response, actual range and support; a later corrected or adult-supplied model is a separate record.