Top Ten Activities to Encourage Subitizing

Subitizing is the ability to recognize a quantity without counting (e.g., recognizing the faces of a die, the number of dots on a domino) and helps children establish a solid number sense which will help them with subsequent math activities like adding and subtracting. Here are our top ten subitizing activities from the year in the event you'd like to play some of these games at home with your child this summer to strengthen their math abilities.

1.  Creating equations with dice



2.  Math Subitizing Easel



3.  Pete's Buttons



4.  Ten Frame Names



 5.  In and Out



6.  How Many Presents?



7.  Race to 100



8.  Magic Ten



9.  Rolling and Recording Numbers



10.  Domino Parking Lot

Spinner Painting

We combined art and science today when we explored how we could use a machine like a salad spinner to create interesting works of art!

 

The children squirted various colours of acrylic paint onto paper plates...

 

...put the paper plate into the spinner...

...and used their muscles to crank the art.

 

We called this 'spectator art' because so many children wanted to watch as each piece was created. You could hear the 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' across the room!

The look on each child's face as the spinner's lid was lifted and the art was revealed was priceless!

The plates turned out lovely! It was interesting to discuss with the children how the force of the spinning made the paint move. We compared amounts of paint, types of paint, and colours to mix in order to vary the results.

 

Geoboards on the Light Table

Clear geoboards on the light table invite children to create and explore shapes. 

How many squares can you count?

Are there more squares or triangles?

Do you see any irregular shapes?

Look at these big kids! Today our SK children visited the grade 1 classroom to meet some of the teachers and see the new space they would be working in next year. They were super excited!

 

 

Mrs. Fox read them a story and they were able to listen to some of the interesting things that happen in grade 1. Afterwards they visited some of the centres in the classroom.

 

Once the children returned to our classroom many visited the writing centre so that they could create a book to tell other about what happens in grade 1!

Sidewalk Chalk Painting

We made 'sidewalk chalk' paint today with the children. It is such an easy recipe - you mix water, cornstarch and food colouring until you get a paint like texture. This is an interesting messy recipe because if the paint sits for a while, the cornstarch settles to the bottom of the cup and the artist needs to work to mix it up again with a spoon or brush.

 

 

Sidewalk chalk paint is fun to use - it's drippy and messy and clumps when it is dropped on the paper. This is similar to our 'goop' recipe where the cornstarch/water mixture acts as both a solid and liquid.

Because of the paint's properties, the children can create some amazing artwork where the colours blend and bleed into one another.

 

The paint can also be splattered and dropped, engaging children in a fun sensory experience that encourages the use of interesting action words!

This chalk is fun to use outside too!