Making Maths Visual

How do we ‘see’ numbers? Being able to recognise patterns in numbers is called subitising. This type of mathematical problem solving lays the foundation for the development of Number Sense (the ability to manipulate numbers), and grows the understanding of how different patterns in numbers work.

Here is a group of dots. How would you add them together? Which different ways can they be grouped so that we can count them? 

Were you drawn to fives or twos first? What other groups did you see?

Exploring how to group numbers in different ways helps us to develop understanding of patterns within numbers as well as extend our ideas and grow our thinking by describing the many strategies we've used. It is also fantastic, creative mathematical fun!

This week we had a go at finding multiple ways to work out how many dots we saw in a pattern. We had rich mathematical conversations about different strategies we used.

If you would like to learn more about subitising and how to use it at home, here is a link.