Subitizing? (Nope, it's not a post about Sub Plans!)

So my colleagues and I have been doing a fun domino activity for a few years now.  We flash the kids domino dots and they have to say the number as quickly as they can:

It's basically flashcards for counting.   

Speed is what we're trying for.  

I encourage speed by saying things like  "How fast can your math brain tell you the number!?"

Once they're good at the "simple" set of cards we move on to the "harder" cards:

Again, speed is the goal and VIOLA the kids are adding and they don't even know it!  Woo Hoo!  Plus, they are FAST!

Now, what we DIDN'T know (and one of my colleagues, Jill stumbled upon on YouTube) is that we are Subitizing!

Huh?  I mean. . . oh yeah, we knew that (ha- right!)

Subitizing (pronounced Soo-bitizing) is literally "instantly seeing how many." 

I am here to tell you people:  It works!!  

My kids are better adders and they actually SEE numbers in their head.  It's amazing!

Check out this YouTube vid my colleague found:

And this video which explains even more:

We used to use domino cards like these:

Super simple to make:  Cut out cardstock rectangles and use colored circle stickers.

Of course being kindergarten teachers we wanted it to be cuter (It's a sickness. . . we know!) If you want to see the "cuter" version click HERE.

You have to admit:  the dots are precious!

Thanks to Teaching 4 Real for the fun clipart freebie!

Do you Subitize?

Story Maps, Rubrics and Counting (Random Thoughts)

Conferences Monday, Valentine's Day party Tuesday and getting a weeks worth of sub notes ready.  My head is swimming and my thoughts are scattered.  So, today's post it just as random and scattered as my thoughts are this week. 

I just need to give a shout out to my co-worker Jill for this adorable Story Map poster she created for us!  The kids were immediately excited about it because of the pirate and they didn't even know what it was!  We read a story today and talked about Title and Characters.  Tomorrow we'll read another story and talk about Title, characters and setting and so forth. 

Jill was also the master mind behind these incredible rubrics.  These charts have really helped my kids think about their writing. 

In math we are working hard on counting "big" numbers using "big kid" (skip) counting.  My students have been brainstorming ways we've learned to count this year.  I love that they are 5 and 6 years old and don't find it odd in the least that they can count by 5's and 1's and 10's and 1's.  It's just so natural to them!   If only they knew how hard a skill that is and that their teacher didn't even start practicing those skills until 3rd grade!   My how education has changed!

Ok, random scattered thoughts are still bouncing around in my head.  Time to get organized.....sigh....