1. Kelly Ann Sassone Da Vinci Innovation Academy
Subitizing
Kelly Ann Sassone
Da Vinci Innovation Academy

2. Da Vinci Innovation Academy
Project Based Learning
*Compassionate Communication
*Student Led Conferences
*Presentations of Learning
*Exhibition
*Maker Space

3. “Instantly seeing how many”
What is it?
“Instantly seeing how many”
From a Latin word meaning “suddenly”, subitizing is the direct perceptual apprehension of the numerosity of a group.

4. Perceptual VS Conceptual
Perceptual: recognition of a number pattern (seen in babies and animals)
“Three pictures hang in front of a six month-old child. The first shows two dots, the others show one dot and three dots. The infant hears three drumbeats. Her eyes move to the picture with three dots.”
Conceptual: recognizing a number pattern as a composite of parts and as a whole (most of our focus today)
We recognize a six-dot domino without counting because we see each side of the domino as 3 individual dots and as a three – we see the entire domino as composed of two groups of three and as one six.

5. Types of Conceptual Subitizing:
Spatial: visual patterns (dominoes, ten frames, five games, flash plates)
Temporal: sequences of sounds and movement (beat of a song, listening to clapping)
Kinesthetic: using fingers

6. Why does it matter?
The ability to group and quantify sets quickly builds the number sense needed to conceptually understand more complex mathematical concepts
Counting and Cardinality (perceptual)
Number Conservation (quantity does not change with physical rearrangement)
Number Compensation (mental math strategy: )
Counting On
Place Value
Composition and Decomposition of Numbers
Estimation

7. What should I remember when setting up subitizing activities?
Spatial arrangement influences difficulty – why?
Rectangular Linear Circular Scrambled
The design of the unit being subitized (bird vs square)

8. Which side?

9. We want children to understand that:
• there are 6 dots in this pattern or arrangement
• 6 is… 1 more than 5 (2 more than 4, 3 more than 3, 4 more than 2, 5 more than 1, 6 more than 0)
• a set of 6 objects can be decomposed in to smaller groups of objects
• six counters, no matter how arranged, still retains the same numerical quantity (number conservation)
• the associated oral name for a set of six things is “six”

10. What is the Best Way for Our Little Learners to Acquire this skill?

11. Games! GAMES! GAMEs! Memory Games (matching numbers, Make 10, Make 5)
Compare (“War”)
BUMP!
Go Fish! (matching numbers, making 10, making 5)
“I Wish I Had…”
Race to Twenty
Roll and Build
Dominoes (so many games with dominoes )
Flash!

12. Make a Number! (Video) game is called “Make X” on weebly
Video was removed because I do not have permission from all parents to have the video available online/ open to the public

13. Great Resources:
Google Search: “Subitizing: What Is It? Why Teach It?” By Douglas H. Clements