Subitize while #TMWYK
I so wish I would have had my camera at the ready this morning at the breakfast table! I need to take Christopher Danielson’s advice and get Google Glass, but that’s a little out of my price range. So I’m going to recreate what my kids said using the visuals below, but I can’t recapture the cool expressions and their tone of voice…they had me gut rolling this morning. I had the bills out on the table and along with the bills were stamps. My daughter grabbed them and said “Mom, you’re almost out of stamps…you only have 5 left.” Of course, I saw the opportunity to Talk Math With Your Kids (TMWYK) and had to ask “How do you know there are 5?” Here is how she and her older brother subitized (or instantly recognized how many without counting).
How my 5 year old daughter saw 5:
How my 6.75 year old son saw 5:
The ability to subitize allows kids to see a set instead of individual pieces. Kids get lots of counting opportunities, but some kids have trouble getting past seeing objects as individual pieces and seeing a whole set. For example, when children count out a set of objects:
They attach a number to each object like this:
But then if you ask them to show you 5, most young children will point to the 5th item in the sequence.
Five is a set of 5 things, not the 5th item. Having kids subitize helps them see a whole set instead of counting individually.
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That is fantastic! Love how your kids were able to apply what they have learned to a real world situation. Do you have any suggestions for kids who get stuck and can’t seem to get past subitizing to 5?
Susan,
I do lots of modeling how I personally see groupings or how the other kids see groupings. My kids LOVE playing War but with Subitizing cards (see this post). I use the Subitizing Cards because the objects are grouped in ways that make it easier for kids to subitize, because they aren’t randomly placed. Then while playing, I occasionally stop them and make them explain how they know the amount on their card. When they first started playing it was a lot of counting one-by-one. But right after they counted then I would say something like, “I see just how you did that, one way I saw it was I saw these four and then the extra one over here so that’s how I knew it was 5.” Just lots and lots of exposure and modeling. Another way I do it is anytime I am giving kids small amounts of something (like 3 graham crackers, 2 pencils, etc), I just say “Here are 3 crackers.” “Here are 2 pencils.” So that way they see it as a set that makes 3, 2, etc.
One of the aspects of number which is often overlooked is the difference between cardinal and ordinal. Ordinal numbers are first, second, third, etcetera, and are what are being used when counting, so when you ask for five the child points naturally to the fifth item. It is a step further into the abstract to learn and appreciate that when you have counted to the sixth item you have actually counted six items (six being the cardinal number).