Tagged as: Subitizing

Subitize: The Ability to "See" Small Amounts

All children are born with an innate ability to perceive the difference between 1 and 2 objects. With support and experience, they can quickly perceive and name “how many” for collections of 3, 4, and 5 objects. This mathematical ability is called subitizing. From a Latin word meaning suddenly, the term subitize refers to the ability to “see” a small amount of objects and know “how many” there are instantly without counting.

Not all arrangements of the same number are equally easy to subitize—preschoolers will recognize that there are 5 dots quickly if they are arranged like the corners of a square with a dot in the middle, but may be slower or less sure if the 5 dots are in a straight line, particularly if they are very close together.

While it’s important that adults get to hear children count out loud, it’s also important that they acknowledge when children correctly identify a small amount without counting it at all.

The above are excerpts from the Collaborative's book Big Ideas of Early Mathematics: What Teachers of Young Children Need to Know (2014).

Browse our collection of resources tagged SUBITIZING.

A New Focus for Familiar Card Games

April 29, 2019

Here you can download cards and simple-to-learn game ideas to help young children build their understanding of early math concepts such as cardinality and composing and comparing numbers.

Topic: Number Sense
Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
Tags Cardinality, Dot cards, Equivalence, Games, Subitizing

Series: Focus on the Child January 29, 2019

Regardless of how high a preschooler can rote count, a child’s sense of what those numbers actually mean develops gradually. We call this understanding number sense, and it requires relating numbers to real quantities.

Topic: Number Sense
Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
Tags Dot cards, Estimation, Subitizing, Unifix Cubes

Series: Focus on Play September 26, 2018

The Match ‘Em All Game

This bingo-like game allows children to think about numbers in different ways. It focuses children on the attribute of quantity of small sets and helps them build a more robust number sense.

Topic: Number Sense
Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
Tags Dice, Games, Subitizing

$simple tossing game with math$

Series: Focus on Play September 25, 2018

The Hoop Game

This game played with a hula hoop and bean bags demonstrates all the math that can be explored with a simple tossing game. Each round gives children practice seeing and naming smaller parts of a total number in a variety of ways.

Topic: Number Sense
Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
Tags Games, Subitizing

Series: Ideas at Work September 11, 2018

Preschool Number Sense Routine Perfect for Transitions

Moving from one activity to another just got a lot more mathematical with this simple routine that builds early number sense with preschoolers.

Topic: Number Sense
Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
Tags Dot cards, Subitizing

Series: Focus on the Lesson August 17, 2018

Dot Card Transition Activity

Transition time is a great time for mathematizing a daily routine. This dot card transition is a relatively simple routine that builds number sense in a concrete way.