Subitizing Activities

Subitizing is the rapid and accurate identification of numbers used to assess small quantities. Knowing how to subitize (or recognize small quantities without having to count them) enables students to gain automaticity and numerical fluency. They can add and subtract faster. They are more confident in their abilities. In my subitizing activities center, I also incorporated number words, as an added skill students can practice and a way to incorporate literacy into my math time (we will fit literacy in whenever we can!)

So, why is it important to have a math center focusing on number recognition, quantity (subitizing), and number words?

Students need to be fluent in reading and math. Number words come up on many occasions in text (one specific example is the DRA assessment). Numerical fluency is important in problem solving. Seeing representations in your mind of the quantity of a number can help with adding more on, or taking away, or even grouping (tasks that require multiplying and dividing).

In my experience it takes the better part of the kindergarten year for students to learn number words and subitizing to ten, and as a challenge subitizing amounts to twenty.

So, how do you get this information into the long-term memory of my students?

One way to accomplish this is to put it in a center, so students review the information even if it isn’t the focus for the week. It’s something we’ve learned but are reviewing strictly at that center, while I meet with groups and work on the skill we are learning that week.

My subitizing activities center has themes throughout the year. In December, students subitize with gingerbread men and women, and look for ten frames and number words to match. In March, we've got clovers and pots of gold! Each month, students have a new subitizing activity themed for that month. They also work on different skills within subitizing: some months we subitize tally marks, others ten frames, or dominoes. We sometimes throw in number words in addition to the subitizing activity.

The center also has accountability sheets, so after students are done matching the quantities to the number, they can record their work. They practice writing number words, or simply write out the number next to the quantity, depending what the accountability sheet looks like that particular month.

I set up this center next to my number posters, which have the number words and a ten frame representation of the number on the poster. This serves as a reference and an anchor chart for students who may need help matching the numbers. They simply refer to the anchor chart!

The subitizing activities center is an easy one to change out. If students get tired of it, which they rarely do, it's easy to put another activity at that center for a few weeks to give them a break. It has been my experience that students enjoy this center, particularly because of the seasonal themes it has. They mostly like it because they are working on something that they know is an important skill they'll use in first or second grade!