August 22, 2024 | Leave a Comment
Subitizing is one of the terms I am asked about the most because many early educators aren’t familiar with it. If you aren’t familiar with it, that’s OK. The term is relatively new, but the skill isn’t. All it is is knowing an amount by looking at things like tally marks, fingers, or dice without counting. I think of it as sight words for math. This ability is vital for developing math concepts like quantity and grouping, as well as speed in counting. There is no need to push or force children to learn this skill before they are ready, instead incorporate this into games and activities naturally so that your students can work on this skill at whatever ability they are at. Here are a bunch of fun subitizing math activities for pre-k you can use in your classroom!
Many of these subitizing math activities for prek use the same printable number cards. Find them online here.
How to Teach Preschoolers to Subitize
Mystery Number I have a mystery number daily in my circle time. This helps me explicitly cover numbers in every class in a fun way. What I love about it is that while revealing the numbers using the hints ( the finger and dice cards), the children who are subitizing already can participate, and when we “double-check” by counting, the children who are not yet subitizing can, too. Learn more about how I use this strategy here.
Pocket Chart Activities Children can use the same mystery number cards to show the same amounts in different ways. You could also do this with tally mark cards.
Roll & CoverRoll-and-cover games can be simple or much more complex. They can use novel elements to cover, like this Santa or Gingerbread House Roll-and-cover game, stickers like this UFO one, or even cut-and-paste like this shark-themed one!
Tally RaceTally Race is one of my favorite group games, and it helps teach tally marks as symbols for amounts!
Roll & BeadThis was a favorite subitizing math activity of my now math superstar daughter when she was little and many of my students before and since. Roll the die and add that many beads. You can use a regular die or dry erase with tally marks on it.
Number & DotChildren learn best when they actively participate in the learning—this game fits that bill. Half the class has the numbers from our mystery number cards, and the other half has the dice cards. They have to find their match! This is one of my students’ favorite subitizing math activities. Tally Mark DominoesA reader told me years ago that this is NOT how you play dominoes; I’m sure she was right. I don’t know how to actually play, but I do know this variation helps children work on subitizing!
Roll & PoundWho doesn’t like to hammer? I have yet to meet a preschooler who isn’t fond of it. This game uses a die to roll, and then there are numbers on the pegs for the child to hammer. Of course, you could also put tally marks on them!
Filed Under: Math Activities, Math Printables, Preschool Activities, Subitizing | Leave a Comment