What happened before the lesson?

Where did the idea come from?
The book, Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats, represents a growing pattern in a unique manner. It is the perfect story to introduce a more complicated growing pattern. 

What had the children learned BEFORE this lesson? 
Children had experienced many +1 patterns before this lesson. They also could verbally count to at least 20.

What did you plan to do AFTER this lesson?
I will use another story that uses the same pattern (e.g. Hippos Go Berserk!) with the same general lesson plan.

What's happening during the lesson?

Objective: Children will act out a growing pattern of +1, +2, +3, +4, and +5.  

Introduction:
Ask if children are good pretenders. Explain that they will be actors and actresses and they will need to be good cats.

Procedure:

1. Read the book Mrs. McTats and her Houseful of Cats. Ask predicting questions based on the patterns in the story.
2. Act out the story as you reread the relevant parts of the book.
3. Count the cats at the end of the “production.”
4. Ask children to represent the story using counters for cats and a plate for the house. Count the number of cat counters after each addition. 
   

What will I do after the lesson?

What would you do differently if you taught it again?
I would focus more on the terms, 2 MORE, 3 MORE, and 4 MORE. That idea needed to be reinforced with each new group of cats. In addition, I would use props for the fish so that Mrs. McTats would need to use one-to-one correspondence to distribute the fish to her cat family. 

How would you describe the teaching that occurred using the words on the Continuum of Teaching Behaviors?
I served as a CO-CONSTRUCTOR during most of this lesson.