Subitizing. Pronounced soob-uh-TIZE-ing. What in the world?? And your computer will continue to not recognize it as an English word and will have the red squiggly line under it. But it is an OH so important word.
Subitizing is the ability to automatically recognize an amount. Dice has made it very popular to recognize dots in patterns. We would recognize 3,4,5, 6, and even more amounts if the dots are in patterns or groups of amounts we can recognize easily. When we start practicing concepts like these with our littles, they begin to gain an understanding of number concepts, and they- eventually- won't use the dreaded finger counting (that's another topic, but don't get to discouraged. It's a natural tool). Think of our hands. They come in sets of 5. So using them with your littles is another great subitizing strategy. We don't want them (again, eventually) to hold up 8 fingers and have to recount the 5. We want them to automatically know 5, then count on 6, 7, 8.
That's where subitizing comes in. How do you practice? Jon Van de Walle (educational math guru) made great black line masters with dot cards. I use them constantly in the classroom. Start with the smaller amounts and move up. Practice counting them with your littles, play games with them, and eventually, have them try to tell how much there is without counting.
Subitizing is the ability to automatically recognize an amount. Dice has made it very popular to recognize dots in patterns. We would recognize 3,4,5, 6, and even more amounts if the dots are in patterns or groups of amounts we can recognize easily. When we start practicing concepts like these with our littles, they begin to gain an understanding of number concepts, and they- eventually- won't use the dreaded finger counting (that's another topic, but don't get to discouraged. It's a natural tool). Think of our hands. They come in sets of 5. So using them with your littles is another great subitizing strategy. We don't want them (again, eventually) to hold up 8 fingers and have to recount the 5. We want them to automatically know 5, then count on 6, 7, 8.
That's where subitizing comes in. How do you practice? Jon Van de Walle (educational math guru) made great black line masters with dot cards. I use them constantly in the classroom. Start with the smaller amounts and move up. Practice counting them with your littles, play games with them, and eventually, have them try to tell how much there is without counting.
I actually looked up the word to see how it originated. Here's a little snippet from Wikipedia:
Subitizing, coined in 1949 by E.L. Kaufman et al.[1] refers to the rapid, accurate, and confident judgments of number performed for small numbers of items. The term is derived from the Latin adjective subitus (meaning "sudden") and captures a feeling of immediately knowing how many items lie within the visual scene, when the number of items present falls within the subitizing range.
I think that's cool...but that could just be me!
Subitizing, coined in 1949 by E.L. Kaufman et al.[1] refers to the rapid, accurate, and confident judgments of number performed for small numbers of items. The term is derived from the Latin adjective subitus (meaning "sudden") and captures a feeling of immediately knowing how many items lie within the visual scene, when the number of items present falls within the subitizing range.
I think that's cool...but that could just be me!
Before we left for our tour of vacations, I tried working on numbers with my little. He can recognize numbers through 12, so I wanted to work on the actual sets that match it. I made cars with flowers, as that was the day we were talking about flowers (previous post!) :) I just spread the cards around the floor and made it a fun hunt sort of game. I had to help, but I think the main point was accomplished: to have fun. |
I made up a packet of games to play with the dot cards (and I included some dot cards of my own in the packet). It really doesn't get old with the littles. :) Fun, quick games are the most successful in my classroom. Click the button to grab it in my store!
The grids you see for some of the games is called a Ten Frame. This is another tool that is wonderful to help students gain automaticity with the concept of 5 and 10, which in turn helps with their subitizing skills. I'll post activities for ten frames and other math tools later. :) Let me know how it goes for you! Of course, all the game playing is a natural talking session! :)
TTYL :)
Kat
The grids you see for some of the games is called a Ten Frame. This is another tool that is wonderful to help students gain automaticity with the concept of 5 and 10, which in turn helps with their subitizing skills. I'll post activities for ten frames and other math tools later. :) Let me know how it goes for you! Of course, all the game playing is a natural talking session! :)
TTYL :)
Kat