Luke & Mckenna's math assessment

Jenny Williams invited Luke to take part in a math readiness assessment for k-2 students with McKenna on Thursday. The group doing the assessment, KY Center for Mathematics, was developing assessment protocols for young students.

Here's the conversation Luke and McKenna had on the way down to the Brown Hotel:
McK: I'm SO tired.
Luke: I'm as tired as the Earth!
McK: I'm as tired as Heaven!
Luke (singing): This old man, he played seven, he played knick-knack up to heaven.....

The assessment was pretty interesting, and I took notes during it, so this is a summary:

• count from 1 up to 32
• count from 97 (Luke not sure what to do, but at home counts to 100)
• count by 10s (didn't know)
• use fingers to show numbers
• identify the numbers the teacher showed him
• count backwards from 10
• count backwards from 15 (Luke said, "I'm not sure about that")
• read numbers from cards (did easily until 3 digit numbers, then said, "Ooo, I don't know what that one is")
• identify cards as they're put on a table and then sequence from lowest to highest, using 1-10
• identify cards as they're put on a table and then sequence from lowest to highest, using 12 - 20. This one was interesting, because he misidentified many of these, mixing up 12 and 20, 13 and 30, 14 and 40, etc. The teacher later told me that this is a very common error with young learners.
• the teacher said, "Let's try some more cards!" Luke replied, "I think I'm tired of cards."
• pick out 15 chips from a pile
• add blue and red chips mentally after seeing them briefly. He had 2 +4 = 6, then two near misses with 5 + 3 = "maybe it's 9" and 8 + 4 = 12

I'll get a copy of the assessment after it's scored, but the teacher said that he did really well. They also gave us goodie bag with a wonderful book of ideas for math activities with young kids. Fun day!