Category: Number sense

1. Make the number

You need:

For 3 – 5 players

Two sets of Digit Dog ten frames – large or small

Small objects such as pennies, buttons or counters.

To play:

One player is the leader and has the ten frame cards in a pile, face down.

Other players have a blank ten frame and ten small objects each.

The leader turns over the top card for a few seconds and then turns it back again.

Other players make the pattern they saw with objects on their ten frame.

The leader turns over the card again to check the patterns. Players who were correct score one point.

Play until all cards have been turned over, or one player reaches 10 points.

The winner is the player with most points.

Variations

• Make the number on your ten frame one more than the number on the card.
• Make the number on your ten frame two more than the number on the card.
• Make the number on your ten frame one less than the number on the card.
• Make the number on your ten frame two less than the number on the card.

 

2. Who has more?

 

You need:

For 2 players

A set of Digit Dog ten frames for each player, in a pile face down.

To play:

On the count of 3, players turn over their top card. The player with more dogs wins the two cards and says “I have …….dogs. I have more dogs than you”. The other player says “I have ……. dogs. I have fewer dogs than you”.

The game ends when all cards have been turned over. The winner is the player with more cards.

Variation

• The player with the fewer dogs wins the cards.
• Say how many more and how many fewer dogs there are.

This game practises subitising (see June 24th Post)

To play Ten Frame Flash you need:

A few sets of Digit Dog ten frame flash cards – large or small

To play:

Place the cards in a pile face down.

One player shows the top card and then turns it back again, the other players have to say how many dogs were on the card. The length of time that the card is revealed can get shorter as learners get better at recognising the patterns.

Encourage learners to recognise patterns and to work out the number without counting each dog.

How did you know how many there are? Explain your thinking.

Variations

• For learners still practising counting accurately, turn over the cards and count each dog. Place an object on each dog and count the objects.
• Use the five frame flash cards.
• For a challenge: turn over the card, show the dogs and then hide them again. This time say one more than the number of dogs or one less than the number, e.g. if there were 4 dogs on the card, you would say “one more is 5” or “one less is 3”.

Try these on-line ten frame games:

https://gregtangmath.com/tenframemania

https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Ten-Frame/

Show these slides for a couple of seconds to practise saying how many objects there are without counting in ones.

To play:

Open slideshow.

Click once to reveal an image, click again for it to disappear.

Ask: “How many Digit Dogs can you see?”

At first learners will want to count each dog and you will need to leave the image on the screen. Practise recognising the groups of dogs and saying how many there are without having to count each one. How quickly can you do this?

Being able to look at a small set of objects (up to 5) and say how many there are without counting in ones is called subitising. Once children can count objects accurately we want them to move onto subitising, this is an important step in the development of number sense.

It is easier to subitise if objects are arranged in recognisable patterns, such as the dice dot patterns or on ten-frames. The frames are used so that learners can relate numbers to 5 and 10, an important understanding for calculation.

 

Perceptual subitising – instantly recognising a small group of objects, usually up to 5 or 6.

 

How many Digit Dogs can you see?

 

Conceptual subitising – seeing smaller groups of objects within a larger group to say how many there are without counting in ones. We do this when there are more than 5 or 6 objects.

 

I know there are 7 because I see 5 and 2 more.

I know there are 7 because I can see 4 and 3 more.