GETTING READY
Different ways to split
A whole to split. A turn at the table. A little practice.
About 15–20 minutes together. Bring exactly four counters, with a fifth kept ready to add openly later, and a sheet with two group areas inside one boundary plus two spaces for saved pictures. A pencil, for keeping a picture of each way.
For the grown-up · The splitting and the comparing are taught at the table, not on screen — saving and comparing pictures on paper is the whole mechanism. Stay nearby and read prompts if your browser’s voice is unavailable. Printing is optional.
Open the table card & picture sheets ↗This page remembers your place only while it stays open. Reloading or leaving starts again.
Grown-up help
Practice on screen is rehearsal of reading a record back into counters and of the conservation check. It supports, but cannot itself supply, the table-observed rows below. Your paper card remains the evidence record.
- Two different pairs for 4, then for 5: chooses and completes both. Needing a move demonstrated, or the reversal prompt, is supported.
- Checks the whole after each rearrangement: recounts or cites the same complete set. Your routine “how many altogether?” is ordinary task delivery, not support — only recounting together or demonstrating the check is.
- Transfer: rejects the spread-out illusion with a reason, and the rebuilt arrangement matches the record’s group counts. Judging by length, or rebuilding without consulting the picture, does not pass.
Mark each row independent / supported / revisit / uncertain. Leave anything you did not observe uncertain. Nothing is scored or stored.
There is no deadline. On a rebuild, every counter moves only when your child taps it, and only their own “This matches my picture” ends it — nothing is ever placed for them. Five practice items, at most two extra layouts; a second mismatch on the same one closes practice calmly.
My-first-way sheets, record cards and the table card ↗