Give Me Five

I had two new students start class today. During a math pre-test one of my new kids asked me if I could "hold up five fingers". I was half listening because I was working with another student. I thought that was an odd question but I said "sure" and I held up my left hand.

When I looked up at the student he was counting...using my fingers plus his fingers. He was working on a subtraction problem and apparently he needed more than 10 fingers to solve the problem.

I have to give the kid some credit for "using his resources". Next time I will tell him that he can't use other people's fingers to solve problems, he'll need to take off his shoes and socks and use his own toes.