Unit Guide

Telling Stories through Addition and Subtraction

Regina Mulvena

As a kindergarten teacher, a child’s biggest challenge is writing. We begin the writing process by simply drawing pictures to relay the words they are trying to express. The first thing children do with a crayon or marker, is make a mark. Our natural instinct as children is to draw. Then we learn that our markings can make letter to spell or write our name. This lends itself nicely to numbers. When we talk about counting and help students understand the idea of one-to-one correspondence, drawing again is another key strategy we use. This unit is all about addition and subtraction with storytelling and comics and asking the students to draw what they hear or what they want to represent. Storytelling is a gateway into children’s imagination where amazing things can happen!