Derived from a Latin word subitus, which roughly translates into ‘sudden’, Subitizing is a learning strategy that calls for a fair approximation of the numbers, without having an exact estimate of the same.

Importance of Subitising

Subitising is the initial step in making a child understand the meaning of numbers and their connections with corresponding things and items.

Subitizing also helps the child from having over-dependence on counting as often situations in life require faster recognition of numbers, where speed takes precedence over accuracy.

For example, counting guests in a function or cars in a traffic jam.

Complex subitizing also develops the skill of pattern recognition and sharpens the analytical skills of the child.

Kindergarten is the time period in the nourishment and personality development of the child where he or she starts a wider interaction with the outer environment, away from the cozy comfort of home.

It is also the time when the child needs to start developing number sense.

On that note, the following are a few subitizing activities for the Kindergarten classroom to introduce them to the magic of numbers one subitizing step at a time:

1. Observe the classroom

Interesting classroom activity for the Kindergarteners is to take them around the classroom or even the playground and make them observe the different items in their surroundings.

You can then ask random and quick questions to your students like the number of pens lying on the table or the number of windows in the classroom. Consequently, you can reward the child who gets the maximum number of answers correct.

This way you are not only perfecting your students in the art of subitizing, but also helping them develop a keen sense of their surroundings, and sharpen the observation skills that will help them in the long run as they course through their lives.

This can also act as one of the introductory sessions to Kindergarten, where you can assess the prior learning of each child.

2. Subitizing with animals

Teaching your Kindergarten students to love and care for animals is an important part of their emotional development.

It is also important to teach them about the different kinds of animals. Have your Kindergarten students draw animals large-sized like ladybugs, butterflies, dogs, etc. Then draw circles in their imaginary bodies.

The next step is to get a colorful die and roll it. The students have to color the numbers of circles in the animals corresponding to the number on the die. Slowly, increase the time allotted to complete the coloring. Thus, your Kindergarten students become aware of the art of subitizing and also end up learning about the many animals gifted to us by Mother Nature.

3. Ping Pong Subitizing

Divide your students into groups and get them large-mouthed jars to start the fun activity. Also to be used as props are colorful ping pong balls to get them all excited.

Mention a number loudly and then ask the children to quickly pick that number of balls and throw them inside the jar as quickly as possible. The child who puts the ball in the jar the fastest and with the most accuracy wins the game. You can repeat this game with multiple items like buttons, beads, or colorful erasers.

You can slowly increase the complexity of the game by asking them to pick up the balls of only a specific color. This will help them not only to get quick with numbers but also the ability to differentiate between different colored objects.

4. Subitizing SWATS

Subitizing SWATS is a fun way to teach your Kindergartens the art of subitizing. It contains a range of props like multiple dice cards, number cards, hand symbol cards, etc.

The students have to select the right numbers or symbols by swatting on them. And often, they have so much fun swatting and subitizing, that they forget that they are sharpening their math skills along the way.

You can play this game in small groups and then the winner of each group will play with the winners of the other groups.

Thus, you can end up turning the entire exercise into a Subitizing Swatting Tournament of sorts!! And maybe the winner gets to keep the SWATS until the next tournament!

5. Printable worksheets

A little bit of homework in the Kindergarten classroom will sometimes do the child good in understanding that learning is not always fun and games.

You can download the printable subitizing worksheets for this and ask your students to complete the questions and quizzes on these worksheets.

These worksheets contain multiple questions based on dice, dominoes, and dot charts. Thus, they can help increase the pace of subitizing learning for your Kindergarten students, once they have grasped the basics of the concept.

Summing up,

Although subitizing is an art that should be started at the home at pre Kindergarten level only, still educators have a special responsibility to nurture the mathematical minds of students, which has its foundation in subitizing and number sense.

However, parents can lend them a helping hand by familiarizing the children with the basic concepts of subitizing in their homes. Here are some of the suggested activities to help the children in being Kindergarten ready with basic subitizing skills.

After all, a drop of wisdom from each river in the Child’s mind can expand their mind’s ocean.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Subitizing Activities For Kindergarten: Teaching the art of approximation and pattern recognition appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

It refers to a learning strategy around recognizing numbers with a glance and without actually counting them individually. The ‘sudden’ glance of numbers should be enough to get a fair approximation of the numbers, and as a strategy, it is somewhat close to estimation (although different from it).

It is a learning building block, targeted at children of 3 years and above, to help them evolve their general mental ability around math and numbers.

It is also able to sharpen the tactile and auditory senses that are your judgment of touch and smell, although research on this is still in its nascent stages.

Types of subitizing

Subitizing can be broadly categorized into two categories: Perpetual Subitizing and Conceptual Subitizing.

Perpetual subitizing is the preliminary stage of the process and mostly involves recognizing up to four numbers at a glance. It is taught to children who have just started their learning phases.

Conceptual subitizing on the other hand is a more advanced level of subitizing and is taught when the child has become comfortable with the initial phase. It involves a larger value of numbers and may often be arranged in a complex pattern.

 The child needs to see a pattern in this arrangement and then add them up in pairs of two, three, and fours and come up with a total. All this, with just a glance at the arrangement.

Some helpful activities to teach subitizing

1. Get Creative

 You can start subitizing to a child as young as three years. Make it a personal experience for your child and you can start by using everyday items. If your child likes to draw use his crayons or if he has a sweet tooth, call the cookie jar into action. If you have a dog, use his snacks to teach your child to compare and subitize.

Arrange a few items in different arrangements and ask your child to find groups among them that have the same number of items. You can arrange the doggie snacks in several groups of different arrangements and ask your child to feed the dog to the groups that have a similar number of treats.

At a later stage of their subitizing training, you can also take a few cookie jars with cookies in them, and ask your child to pick two jars that have the maximum number of cookies in them. Make sure the child does not count the numbers individually. You can ensure this by giving them just enough time to glance through and then asking them to write the number on a piece of paper.

2. Printable Worksheets

Once your child gets a basic understanding of this concept, you can download the printable worksheets that are available to help in teaching the child subitizing.

It contains various activities in the form of questions based on dice, dominoes, and dot charts. This helps the child in strengthening their understanding of numbers based on quick approximation with a glance. It also helps you assess your child’s performance and any further improvements that he makes in the process.

3. Subitizing Cards

Subitizing cards are an excellent way to get your child involved in an activity to improve their subitizing. They use dot patterns to help your children a sense of numbers.

You can these cards in front of your child showing the dots and then hide them. The child thus has to identify the number of dots on the card in a second. Use can also use the write on\wipe off type of cards. You can make your own dots and start playing the guessing game.

4. Maths Activity Dice Set

The Maths activity dice set is also an excellent tool to encourage your child into subitizing activities. It comes with ten-frame maths activity dice and an activity book to help you engage your child in a productive manner.

It allows your child to develop an understanding of the composition and decomposition of numbers, and the unification of different number frames to come to a single numerical answer.

5. Go Online

The Millennial generation is born with a tab in their hands. Use it to their advantage. There are a number of online games available online targeted at teaching the kids subitizing.

Some of them are ‘Tug Team Multiplication’, where the numbers are represented by tractors, or ‘Counting in the kitchen’, where the child has to pick the plate with the food items similar in number to what is displayed on the screen. Then we have games like ‘How many much’ and ‘Gracie and Friend’s Birthday Café’ and many, many more.

Sometimes we wish we were born in the generation, eh?

Summing up,

The response time for subitizing numbers above four increases by 250-350 ms on average per each additional item. Hence, it is still an important fundamental skill on which a strong structure for mathematics and analytical science can be built. It is also a building block for the overall intellectual development of the child.

Subitizing today is increasingly getting the attention and niche it deserves in our educational system with respect to early intellectual development and teaching techniques for the children that will build the tomorrow.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Best Activities To Teach Subitizing: The art of grasping numbers with a glance appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Various manipulatives like dice are used for introducing subitizing to young learners. Children can easily find that any side contains numbers 1 to 6 the moment they see the dots. Another helpful option can be subitizing worksheets, which contain various quick mental exercises. If you are in search of such worksheets, scroll down through this post.

Why learning to subitize is important?

Here is what researchers tell about the importance of learning to subitize ^[1]:

• It offers a crisper understanding of numbers^[2] which counting fails to provide sometimes. While counting, kids get carried away by the burden of recognizing and sounding out the number correctly, losing the very perspective of number sense. So, while subitizing provides intelligence, counting is the form of expressing that intelligence.
• The process of subitizing develops comfort with small values at the start^[3], preparing them for bigger calculations they are likely to come across at higher levels.
• Subitizing helps scaffold the learning curve^[4] in children who are not too comfortable with numbers or are unable to understand number relationships.

Interestingly, subitizing is not restricted to guessing the number in a given set only. The learners can use their subitization skills to develop number bonds understanding, number decomposition, pattern identification, and other math reasoning activities. Hence, while counting prepares you to learn numeric calculation, subitizing prepares you to do numbers-based reasoning.

Types of subitizing worksheets

The basic aim of giving worksheets is to acquaint the kids with various types of subitizing-based math problems. Kids can have an engaging mix of problems to solve using worksheets, which can be of various types, such as:

• Identify the number of objects in a set
• Sorting and arranging problems-based worksheets
• Worksheets on pattern recognition-based problems
• Subitizing to number 5, number 10
• Place value subitization
• Decompose or compose numbers worksheets
• Create object set worksheets based on hints

Are you looking for some interesting worksheets that cover the above points? Here are some free printable subitizing worksheets with a PDF version that you can use for improving the ‘count by sight’ ability in kids and help them do estimation-based problems with ease.

Free Printable Subitizing Worksheet 1 [PDF]Download

Free Printable Subitizing Worksheet 3 [PDF]Download

Free Printable Subitizing Worksheet 2 [ PDF]Download

Free Printable Subitizing Worksheet 4 [PDF]Download

Wrapping up,

Include subitizing worksheets in the teaching methods when you want to groom the child’s number sense and math reasoning skills. These worksheets provide the requisite learning support needed to achieve quantitative intelligence and reasoning. With the help of regular practice and quick number talk sessions, the students can derive the best benefits from these practice materials. Children can also use them as a tool for competition, attaining fluency in the process by solving them in a paced manner.

References:

1. Clements, Douglas. (1999). Subitizing: What Is It? Why Teach It?. Teaching Children Mathematics. 5. 400-405. 10.5951/TCM.5.7.0400.
2. Subitizing: The neglected quantifier, Chapter 2, Douglas H. Clements, Julie Sarama, and Beth L. MacDonald
3. The Estimation of Set Size by Potentially Gifted Kindergarten-Age Children, Arthur J. Baroody and Mary R. GatzkeJournal for Research in Mathematics Education
4. Learning Trajectories in Early Mathematics – Sequences of Acquisition and Teaching, DOUGLAS H. CLEMENTS, Ph.D., JULIE SARAMA, Ph.D. Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo, USA

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Free Printable Subitizing Worksheets for Practice [PDF] appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

It can be considered an outcome of a well-developed number sense. Can there be a playful way of learning this skill? Certainly yes! The solution is available in Subitizing Games, which you can play online as a part of the technology in education initiatives. Sometimes, these games are recommended for children who love playing on mobile phones; as these can help use the screen time for learning something substantial.

How subitizing games are used for building math skills in children?

Subitizing learning games are designed to help children work up their brains to do problems quickly and correctly. That is why, these are introduced for basic calculations, at first.

Further, with practice, the children can employ the learning of these games to attain fluency with number sense.

The concept of number bonds also comes to reality when the mind calculates the dots or other countable items by grouping them in different ways. So, let’s take a look at some of the interesting subitizing games available online.

7 Interesting subitizing games for kids

1. Tug Team Multiplication

The numbers are represented by tractors in this online subitizing game. All you need to know is to employ your easy multiplication skills and pick the correct answer from the options provided.

The different sounds emerging from tractors help you know if the answer is correct or wrong. Changing the number of trucks according to the change in problem keeps you engaged and compels your brain to be quick in thinking and processing the inputs provided.

Game Link: Web App

2. Gracie & Friends Birthday Cafe

Designed for Pre-K and K levels, this game gives an enticing way to indulge in the subitizing activity. The teachers can provide scaffolding to the early learners of subitizing by giving them something interesting to know what numbers and the corresponding group of figures look like.

With the help of mental calculations, the children can find the answers to simple problems of additions or subtractions. This game is an ideal representation of the subitizing problem and takes the doubts away from the learning process.

Game Link: Web App

3. Subitizing Seeds

Here is a cute educational online game that gives kids a good round of practice in subitizing along with instilling the desire to plant new seeds. A huge flower pot displays the number of seeds to be planted. Players must view the seed packets displayed on the left side of the screen and quickly select the one that contains the exact same seed as displayed on the pot. 

Dragging and dropping the right number of seeds into the flower pot will make the little gardener water the seeds which grow into beautiful blossoms. When the pot is too full, players can even clear the pot by clicking on the trash can button and enjoy more rounds of practice.

Game Link: Web App

4. How many How much

How Many How Much is one of the several interesting subitizing games available on the website gregtangmath.com. This online game requires the players to compare the two sets of objects in terms of their quantities.

Also, they have to find how much more or less, or how many more or fewer one type of object is from another. So, you build number sense by practicing and subitizing and quickening the calculation process by skipping the individual counting of everyday items like vegetables, fruits, stars, etc.

Game Link: Web App

5. Counting in the Kitchen

The cook prepares the items and stacks them up on the plates. A number appears on the top of the screen, which the player needs to read and pick the plate that has the food items corresponding to that figure.

The fast pace of this game offers good scope for subitizing and helps children see what the number denotes in terms of quantity. The game offers multiple benefits like enhancing number sense, number identification, counting, skipping numbers, and others. Perfect for kids who belong to preschooling days to kindergarten, this subitizing game helps lay a strong foundation for advanced math skills.

Game link: Web App

6. Subitizing – Ten Frame

A ten-frame becomes your playground and dots your muse! This game is designed to subitize operations to number 10. By simply looking at the dots, you are picking the quantity displayed on the ten frames and moving on to the next slide.

The faster you do, the clearer your number sense is. Also, the ability to subitize and guess the correct answer by sight enhances remarkably. Bookmark this Ten Frame Game on your browser and play it as many times as you want in your free time. It is sure to give you ample practice on the subitizing activity.

Game Link: Web App

7. Christmas Subitize 6-10

This multiple-choice game is another great resource for students to learn subitizing and can be used for math centers, indoor recess time, or even at home. Built on a Christmas theme, the game presents a ten-frame that displays a certain number of Christmassy objects such as presents, reindeer, gingerbread cookies, etc. Players must identify the number of objects and select the right option. 

The game has a total of 25 questions that must be solved to get the final score. You have a leaderboard that displays the names of the players with the highest scores and the time taken to complete the game. It is a fun game for kindergarten and first-grade students where they learn subitizing numbers from six to ten.

Game Link: Web App

How to use subitizing games to develop math skills in children?

Certain strategies are quite helpful in giving subitizing games a fitting place in the learning program. Here are a few tips that can help you charge up the students to optimal curiosity to play these games:

• Show ample examples in advance and assert the easiness. Number talk sessions can also help. When they see the demonstrator performing so well, they are all excited to do it by themselves and mentally aim to do better or faster.
• Talk about the rewards waiting for students at the end of the game. Players do have scorecards at the end, but you can make it more exciting by announcing rewards for the highest scorers.
• You can keep a time tab to drive the players into subitizing instead of counting. Though choosing to start with a longer time, quickly change the pace so that the very essence of subitizing is absorbed and practiced amply by the learners.

Wrapping Up

Subitizing is a unique ability that can help polish a student’s math skills. The faster one is in grouping, pattern recognition, and identifying numbers, the quicker one gets at solving math. Getting early math learners into the habit of grasping numbers with a glance is possible with regular practice through worksheets, subitizing activities, and games. We hope your students enjoy the online games highlighted in this article and have a great time learning math in a fun and joyful way.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post 7 Cool Online Subitizing Games For Kids appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Thus, to elaborate, subitize is to guess the number of countable objects without actually counting them one by one. Just like you read the words by sight, at the start (read sight words), without realizing actually reading them, letter for letter, you tell the numbers of objects by skipping the counting them one by one. Thus, to subitize means to guess almost correctly. The experts also call this activity estimating and find it to be coming from a developed number sense.

Why subitizing is essential and when should it be introduced?

Subitizing helps children develop a better understanding of numbers and their underlying meaning. Children tell ‘how many’ in a blink when they subitize. (source: A Study Subitizing: What Is It? Why Teach It? by Douglas Clements, University of Denver). Thus, you make children ‘quantity intelligent’ when you encourage them to guess the amount by sight.

Subitizing is essential, here is why!

As a math beginner, children are expected to be conversant with numbers. Counting is a way to acquire number skills. Even before attaining counting proficiency comes the subitizing part. Children can be given a block having four bird images and the other one with 5 or six bird images. When they are asked to subitize, they will tell by sight which block has more bird images. So, what does it tell about a child’s intelligence? It tells that a child’s mind can understand quantity. Thus, subitizing proves to be an essential skill to teach as it offers:

• Learning of the conceptual part of numbers
• Understanding of separating more from less
• Builds foundational number sense
• Allows applying the concept of numbers in a tangible manner
• Allows forming the numbers from units and breaking them back to units
• Enables doing calculations faster
• Builds a premise for learning pattern recognition.

What researches tell about the importance of subitizing

In the research paper, ‘Subitizing and Mathematics Performance in Early Childhood’, Peabody Research Institute, USA, the authors have tried to summarize how researches have put forth the role of subitizing in number learning or number sense development in the early education stage.

Similarly, many other references to the researches have been made regarding the role of subitizing in the math intelligence building, which are:

1. Children belonging to 3-4 years of age group subitize faster, and tell exact quantities within 120ms. Thus, it hints at the role of subitizing in building number fluency in early learners. (Chi & Klahr, 1975).

2. The subitizing accuracy develops while moving from age 3 to age 4. It shows that subitizing improves with better familiarity with numbers. (Wouldn’t a 4-year old have practiced numbers 365 days more than a 3-year old?), (Starky and Cooper, 1995)

3. Subitizing builds a primer for coming to terms with more complex number relationships like grouping and sequencing

4. Subitizing develops counting abilities and helps children pick different strategies to arrive upon a solution. (Gray and Reave, 2014).

Means, when asked to subitize, the children may divide the numbers, say 6 of them, into 3 and 3, or 2 and 4, or 5 and 1, and so on. Thus, they work up their brain as per the comfort and produce answers by calculating mentally with the help of subitizing abilities.

Hence, considering subtizing as a basic skill to improve better math literacy in kids is not a whimsical approach of a teacher, but is a well-thought strategy. It proves to be a proven tool for building confidence in kids for number learning. By using subittizing, teachers help kids remove math scare surrounding the learning and absorbing of more complex number relationships and operations. So, let’s take a look at various strategies teachers can employ to introduce subtizing to kids and make them aware of their estimation abilities.

Best teaching tools to develop subitizing abilities in children

1. Use Dice Activities

Dice is the most trusted subtizing teaching tool that have been around us since ages. Because it contains very few dots on each surface, it becomes easy for the children to demonstrate subtizing skills using these. So, you can play dice games as a part of teaching strategy to introduce children to the art of subtizing.

2. Use Dominoes

Another interesting strategy is to use dominoes to accustom children with subtizing. You can start by putting the dominoes face down, and then flip them over. Ask the kids to tell the number of dots in almost a blink. You can further strengthen their confidence by creating a number line and ask them to place the dominoes on it corresponding to the number these show.

3. Dots charts

You can create various kinds of charts. In a few, you make the blocks of the dots in an organized manner; in others, you draw them randomly. Studies also show that the organized array and the one not made difficult by introducing interruptions are easy to subitize. So, the next level of proficiency lies in subitizing correctly even when the distractions coupled with unorganized grouping are there.

4. Classic deck of cards

Cards are cool always! These have a specific pattern in the presentation of the suits’ signs too. So, when the children have just started with numbers, they find an easy resource for trying subitizing on these. As a teacher, you can hide the number portion as well, if the kids know reading numbers. So, ask them to recognize quantity just by sight. You may double the challenge by asking them to make a series, too, of the cards they guessed.

Best applications of subitizing

Having gathered information about the teaching tools, lets’ take a look at the math skills where subitizing helps, and offers good learning support:

1. Number sense building – Develop foundational or conceptual number sense in early math learners

2. Math reasoning like quantitative reasoning – Develop learning to tell less from more

3. Developing counting skills – Move from estimating to finding exact number

4. Develop estimation and probability finding skills – At the early education stage, you will be introduced to estimation; at higher levels, while learning probability, you are most likely to employ your subitizing skills and recall its learning.

5. Develop base for numerical operations – By use of grouping the numbers and making various combinations to arrive upon the total of dots on a block, children are actually building a base for learning addition and subtraction operations.

Wrapping up,

When is the right time to introduce subitizing? Well, the right time to introduce subitizing is kindergarten level. Since many children struggle to read and recognize numbers at this level and are in process of building number recognition skills, the subitizing proves its relevance quite significantly. It does prepare children to move to building better number literacy and relating the number they read with the quantity they learned about by subitizing. Even in a later stage, this art of guessing stays with the kids and help them attain fluency with advanced math skills.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post What is Subitizing in math? Why is it important? appeared first on Number Dyslexia.