➺ “Subitizing Games” appendix (p.

1 of 2)

Game Instructions, Rules, and Materials

to Assess Preschoolers’ Number
Understanding
Playing games is a wonderful way to engage students in subitizing activities. Discussions with them as they play can serve
TABLE 4

as uselful assessment and intructional tools. The four games described in this table can help teachers understand what
types of subitizing that children are engaging in.

Game descriptions and objectives

Game Directions Materials and template or game board

Show Objective: To state the number of dots seen and * Dot cards * Paper
and Tell make the orientation of dots. * Markers/crayons * Counters (variation)
game
Rules: The teacher shows a card of dots to
students for about 3 seconds, puts the card down,
and asks the children to “draw [i.e., show] what
you saw.” Students subitize the set of dots and
then draw (or use counters) to show what they
“saw” or “remembered.” This activity is followed
up with questions:
“How many did you see?”
“How do you know you saw _______?”

Ice Cream Objective: To be the first to color all the ice cream * Ice cream cone gameboards
game scoops. * Wooden cubes (with dots or numerals)
* Markers/crayons
Rules: The Ice Cream game is a matching game
that uses a mat with an image of an ice cream
cone with six ice cream scoops. Each ice cream
scoop has a different arrangement of dots, but
each has the same total number of dots. The
student rolls a cube, which has images of various
dot arrangements that each have the same total
number as each ice cream scoop. The player finds
a match between the same total number of dots
or numerals on the die and the same total number
of dots in one of the ice cream scoops.

continued on next page

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➺ “Subitizing Games” appendix (p. 2 of 2)

Table 4 continued from previous page

Penny Bug Objective: To be the first to have your penny * Penny Bug gameboards
game bug land on the flower. * Wooden cubes
* Penny (as a playing piece)
Rules: The Penny Bug game is a matching game
with a start and finish, played on a gameboard.
Each space is designed to look like a leaf, and
the final space is a flower. Fifteen leaves in all
are arranged in three rows. Some leaves have
dot orientations, and some leaves do not have
any dots on them. The flower always has an
arrangement of dots and is designed to elicit
students’ attention toward novel subgroups
or a total group that is difficult for students to
subitize. When students roll the cube, which
contains various dot arrangements on each
face, they have one of two choices. They can
hop their penny bug forward the number of
dots that came up on the face of the cube, the remaining number of hops. This makes
or they can skip ahead to a space where their the hopping strategy less effective for winning
cube face matched a leaf or the flower with the the game. Thus, when students flexibly
same number of dots on it. If a student hops consider the subgroups that make up the total
her penny bug forward but is unable to reach number of dots, they have a greater chance to
the flower on an exact set of hops, then the hop to the flower and win the game.
student’s penny bug must go backward for

Objective: To find the sections with a target * Coloring pages * Markers/crayons

number of dots and color them to find the
Hidden hidden picture.
Picture
Can you find a dinosaur in this
game Rules: The Hidden Picture game is a coloring picture? Color the spaces with three
page on which the student must hunt for dots to find a hidden dinosaur.
sections that show a target number of dots.
After finding a section in the hidden picture
with dots that total a target number, the
student then must color in this section. When
all the sections with matching target numbers
are colored, a picture emerges. This game
provides students an opportunity to use
anchor numbers, where one set of dots can
be perceptually subitized and the remaining
dots are conceptually added to the anchor
number. This game also offers an opportunity
for students to engage in +1 and +2 types of
addition activity.

Note: These games were designed mainly to investigate the relationship between preschool students’ subitizing
activity relative to their understanding of number and were part of a larger study (MacDonald 2013). Activity sheets
and gameboards were adapted resources found at http://www.education.com/worksheets/printable-board-games/.

February 2016 • teaching children mathematics | Vol. 22, No. 6 www.nctm.org