Number Sense Routines- Chapter 3

I'm linking up again with Tara from Little Minds at Work to share some of the highlights from the book, Number Sense Routines, by Jessica Shumway.

 

Make sure to click on the button and head over to read Tara's post on this chapter as well.  She has some great insight into this topic and some great ideas as well!

 

This chapter discusses the idea of subitizing and the two types of subitizing.  Now, I will be very honest with you at this point, I have heard these terms before but prior to reading this book, especially this chapter, these terms were a foreign language to me. 

 

The two types of subitizing are

 

* perceptually subitizing- to visualize and recognize amounts

 

* conceptually subitizing- to recognize small amounts and combine them to see the whole unit.

 

For example, a little owl at the beginning of the year might see this on a dot plate

 

 



 

The teacher will hold up this dot card for a few seconds and then turn it down.  At this time, the teacher will ask what the owls saw.  Now here is the important part, the teacher will ask how the owl knew the answer was four.  At the beginning of the year or for an owl with a weaker number sense,  you will hear because I counted the dots.  However, what you want to hear the owls saying is a group of 2 dots and another group of 2 or even a group of 3 dots and a group of 1.

 

At this point, I was asking myself, "Well this sounds great, but how do I get my little owls to that point without frustration."  Insert the quick images dot card/plate routine.  At the start of math, during calendar, or wherever it fits best in your day, each day for a period of time, quickly flip through a series of dot plates.  Make sure to ask two questions, How many dots do you see?  and How did you get that answer?  Always check to see where their thinking/understanding is.

 

To stick with my obsession with owls, I created a set of owl themed dot cards that could be used during a quick images routine.  Click on the picture to take a look!

 

 

The part that I loved most about the quick images routine is that you can do the same type of routine using ten frame cards as well.  Again the object is to get your owls to see the groupings of the dots.

 

Since I had the owl themed dot cards already made, I decided to also make a set of ten frame cards.  I included cards for numbers from one to twenty.  I liked the idea of the teen frame cards for later on in the year for more of a challenge.  Click the picture to take a look!

 

 

Hope you were able to get some new knowledge from this post.  I know it is a lot to take in!  :)

 

~Erin