Generous: The Doorbell Rang!

In Pat Hutchin's The Doorbell Rang two children share a plate of cookies but before they can eat the doorbell rings and more friends arrive to share the cookies. This continues until they are left with just one cookie each when the door bell rings yet again! What should they do?
"They can break the cookies in half" suggests William

We re-enacted the story using props and the children practiced counting and one-to-one correspondence.

We acted out the story using candy hearts instead of cookies. I was surprised to see how quickly some of the children got the concept of dividing a large number into even groups. In the end Billy said he didn't want to eat his, he doesn't like them. We discussed what could be done . . . throw it away or give it away. Billy decided to give his to William. Bela and Tyreese felt this was unfair - what a great opportunity to explore this side of generosity! Bela suggested we get more candy hearts so everyone can have two but in the end I explained that this is sometimes the way it is - sometimes we receive someone's generosity and sometimes we don't.

The children displayed their thinking by creating a picture. They traced two circles for plates; one for themselves and one for a friend. They got 6 cookies and could decide how to share them - all ideas were accepted, there is no right or wrong idea.