• Blog,  Counting,  Math,  Small Groups,  Subitizing

    Snail Subitizing Math Game

    June 12, 2019 / Comments Off on Snail Subitizing Math Game
    Snail Subitizing game board, features colorful snails with dot patterns that are similar to and different from those found on the faces of a standard die.

    Subitizing, the mouthful of a term for “being able to look at a set and know the amount without counting it,” is one of those cringey teacher words that makes parents’ eyes glaze over, you know? But it’s a critical math skill that we teach in Pre-K, as ugly as the word is itself. And one of our absolute favorite free subitizing games is Snail Subitizing from Life Matters Foundation.

    Snail Subitizing is colorful and super cute, and requires few items to play. We laminate the game page and provide dice and either bingo chips or a dry-erase marker and eraser. This activity rocks because once shown how to do it, kiddos can progress through the board at their own speed.

    Most importantly, however, is that the snails don’t always display the typical dot pattern represented on a standard die. We LOVE that it makes our kiddos think beyond the standard dot configurations they’ve come to know. It makes them think about how different combinations still make up the same number, and it reinforces knowledge of the concept thoroughly.

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  • Addition,  Blog,  Counting,  Math,  Small Groups

    Domino Math

    June 4, 2019 / 1 Comment
    Preschool children place black dots on oversized blank domino canvases. They roll the dice in plastic cups and write the numbers with dry erase markers.

    Dominoes are fantastic for teaching all kinds of math concepts in pre-k: counting, one-to-one correspondence, subitizing, addition and so on. This Domino Math freebie from Recipe for Teaching features several different domino-themed math tools. Today we are using the blank, oversized domino canvas, which helps preschool kiddos practice all of the aforementioned concepts in one.

    We used this page a little differently than it is demonstrated on the RfT site. First, we slid the blank domino sheets into plastic page protectors for use with dry erase markers (laminating works as well). We die-cut a supply of small black circles, and provided a dry erase marker, eraser, die and a “dice containment cup” for each kid.

    We asked each kiddo roll their die, determine the number (subitizing!), count out that number of black dots (counting! one-to-one correspondence!), and place them on one side of the domino. Then we asked them to write that number on the corresponding space below. Then, they repeated the process for the second side. After they completed the two sides, then we asked them to finish the (addition!) equation.

    This activity also helped with following multi-step directions, working independently and problem solving, and they LOVED it!

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