Matching Strategy

I love the matching strategy.  It all started many years ago when my teammate and I were involved in a research project at Arizona State University.  We were learning CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction) and attempting to implement it into our classrooms.  We were team teaching at the time and had about 50 ELL 1st graders in the classroom during math time.  We'd present a word problem and then the students would choose the tools that they wanted to use to solve it.  Well, the matching strategy popped up during one of the subtraction word problems.  Someone decided to make the two sets and then match them up to see the difference.  The student came up to the overhead (I know- old school huh?) and showed their two sets and explained what they did.  I don't even remember if it was a comparing word problem or not, but the matching strategy was born in our classroom and boy did it take off!  Now students were using it for every kind of subtraction problem they could.  Even though it is best for comparing problems, students were using it for your basic subtraction problem- I had 6 cookies.  I ate 3.  How many are left?  They would make the sets and match it up.  Our ASU researcher was a little concerned because the matching strategy didn't fit with the action of the Separate Result Unknown word problem, but we weren't really concerned- we loved the matching strategy.  It continues to be a favorite strategy of mine and each year I wait, sometimes not so patiently, until someone "discovers" it and we can bring it into our bank of strategies for solving word problems. 
When we come back from Spring break on Tuesday, we are beginning our subtraction unit. 

CC6 Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group (matching and counting strategies) is also one of our standards for 4th quarter.  So, it's the perfect time to explore the matching strategy.  "Who has more?"  is an easy concept at this time for most kindergarteners, but I want to push them to figure out the "How many more?" That's where the matching strategy comes in.  I have an activity/assessment pack for CC6.  Click here to see it.  (BTW, I have having a ONE DAY ONLY SALE) But, although the activity is a matching strategy activity, the assessments don't use the matching strategy.  So I created this freebie.  It includes some activities/assessment you can use for the matching strategy.  And, at the end, it has 5-6 pages of word problems (Compare Difference Unknown) that can be used to facilitate the teaching of the matching strategy.  Below are some pictures. Happy Matching!