My colors are pretty basic: if you think about it, I use yellow, red, blue and some earth tones. Sure, there’s the occasional oddball (like undersea green), but those are continually changing.  Colors like cobalt blue or yellow ochre can’t ever be replaced and you really can’t do without them. I love their cobalt teal and it goes without saying that their quins are amazing!

I would like to thank Pam and Katherine of JJC Industries for making this possible for me. It is a great honor, now I just hope I can live up to it!!

Here are some game ideas.  There are several others listed in the links below.  When you show your students the cards you should ask “What do you See?” This is different from “How many? because it frames the question in a way that they think about different number arrangements.  More question examples http://naturalmaths.com.au/numblocks/mr_subitization.htm

1. Quick image games where the teacher flashes dot cards and the students tell how many.

2. Give children a set of cards with equivalent names but one that doesn’t belong.  Have them select the one that doesn’t belong.

3.  Have students match the number with the dot card.

4. Have the students play matching games with cards that show equivalent names.

Great Resources for Subitizing:

There is a new video out by Marilyn Burns called Number Talks that shows a teacher using dot cards and ten frames.

http://teachmath.openschoolnetwork.ca/Subitizing.htm

http://www.moviemakers.ca/downloads.php

http://www.acoe.org/acoe/files/EdServices/Math/NumberRecSubitizingV3.pdf

http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/support-files/dotcards1-12.pdf

http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/support-files/large10frames1-10.pdf

http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/ten-frames.html

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing

http://teacherweb.com/wa/nachesvalleyprimaryschool/msclark/Subs.PDF

There are two types of subitizing. Perceptual subitizing is looking at the number and knowing how many without any mathematical processes taking place.  Conceptual subitizing is based in mathematical processes, such as looking at the parts and the whole. An example of this iswhen you see the eight domino and you know that it is five on one side and three on the other and that makes eight.  Spatial patterns are just one kind.  Other patterns include kinesthetic ones such as finger patterns, rhythmic and spatial-auditory (Clements, 1999).

We usually teach students to subitize up to ten. See  http://www.poweroften.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37&Itemid=103

Spatial arrangements make subitizing easy or hard.  Rectangular arrangements seem to be the easiest followed by linear, circular and scrambled arrangements increasing in difficulty (cited Clements, 1999). You can use dot cards, domino cards, number-cube cards and ten frames to teach subitizing.  You can also use bingo chips and interlocking cubes.

Subitizing is a fundamental skill in the development of students’ understanding of number (Baroody, 1987).  Clements  (1999) writes that students can use subitizing to develop understanding of number, conservation and compensation.  In part 2 we will discuss this further.

Resources

http://www.edplus.canterbury.ac.nz/literacy_numeracy/maths/numdocuments/dot_card_and_ten_frame_package2005.pdf

http://mathelem.sites.fcps.org/system/files/kordeliasGame.pdf

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing

http://teacherweb.com/wa/nachesvalleyprimaryschool/msclark/Subs.PDF