FLASH CARDS FOR SUBITIZING, ATTRIBUTING, COMPARING, GROUPING AND NUMBER CONCEPTS TO 10, & ADDING AND SUBTRACTING
Dane Sweeney
Introduction
This object is a deck of cards that contain on them a variety of different numbers of dots in different colours and in various arrangements. Each card in the deck has a match. This deck is geared towards students in kindergarten or grade 1 to help give them a visual aid to learn. Flash cards are a quick and highly accessible way to help learners with various math skills. By modifying these cards and what we ask the student to do with them, we can take the advantages of flash cards further by helping students to learn about math concepts such as grouping, addition and subtracting, subitizing, finding corresponding matches, and many others. This deck of cards can be used independently by the learner, in pairs or small groups, or with a teacher as a helpful assessment tool or to lead a lesson.
Curricular Connections
Big Ideas
- Numbers represent quantities that can be decomposed into smaller parts
- Repeating elements in patterns can be identified
- One-to-one correspondence and a sense of 5 and 10 are essential for fluency with numbers
Competencies
- Develop mental math strategies and abilities to make sense of quantities
- Model mathematics in contextualized experiences
- Communicate mathematical thinking in many ways
- Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms
Content
- Number concepts to 10 – one-to-one correspondence, subitizing, conservation, sequencing
- Ways to make 5
- Decomposition
- Repeating patterns with two or three elements
- Meaning of equality and inequality
Games That Can Be Played with This Deck
There is a variety of ways that a student can use this deck to help learn. Here are a few suggestions:
Find the Match – student can arrange several pairs of cards face down on the ground, flipping one card over and attempt to find the matching card. This can be a fun way to help students recognize repeating patterns on the cards and helping them understand equality and inequality. Students can also develop their working memory skills by trying to remember where they saw a matching card in a previous round of the game.
Decomposing groups – with each individual card students can count the total number of dots, and then break that into two groups based on the colours (blue and red). This helps students begin to understand attributes, addition and subtraction and the big idea of decomposing quantities. There are many ways to work with students by asking questions such as “what do you see?”, “what if we removed all the red dots?”, or “what would change if we added an extra blue dot, how many total dots would there be?”, and “the card on the right has 4 blue dots and 2 red dots, the card on the left has 3 blue and 2 red, are they equal?” etc.
Subitizing and Counting – quickly showing one card at a time to students can help them improve their counting and subitizing skills. These cards only go up to a maximum of seven dots per card. This was done because larger numbers become too hard to subitize accurately without extending the time to look at the card.  You can show a card and ask them to tell you how many dots in total or how many red or blue dots there are. As students get quicker at this task you can show them the card for a smaller amount of time.
These cards could be laminated, and by using a dry erase marker you can help students with their understanding of various math concepts by either circling all the red or blue dots on a card, crossing some out, drawing extra dots, etc. This can help make the math more visual for learners. Having two colours on the card can help students develop their understanding of attributes and sorting and groups objects as well. Working with the class and discussing the student’s various strategies to determining their answers can be a helpful way to understand student’s thinking and help other learners see new problem-solving strategies.
Using It as An Assessment Tool
The teacher can use this as a quick informal assessment tool to determine students understanding of a variety of concepts. This is a handy tool to help the teacher better understand student’s thinking and understanding by asking them to explain and justify their answers. A teacher could also listen to classmates as they play with the game and check for correct vocabulary use and understanding. Watching how the students interact with the cards and with other students can give the teacher a valuable insight into the thinking of the student. The teacher could use these cards during math talks with their students for both assessment of and as learning.