First Grade Subitizing Cards

Subtilizing Cards to accompany each fact in first grade! 

184 Addition and Subtraction Subitizing Cards

What is Subitizing? 

Subitizing is the ability to instantly recognize a number of objects without counting them. Students use pattern recognition to discover the essential properties of numbers and how they work together. 

How are the subitizing cards used?

You show the students the card and then ask them to tell you what math they see.

They may see multiple things from one card.  For example:

From the card above students might see.

1 less than 10 is 9.

9 take away 2 is 7.

7 plus 2 more is nine.

5 and two more is seven.

And many more.

Why is this beneficial?

In a group setting students learn that others students might be making different connections than they do and this is a great thing. 

Subtilizing also helps students to visually manipulate groupings of objects or number in their head. This is the crucial step between manipulating a set number of objects concretely and being able to use and algorithm to represent that manipulation. 

There are many different ways to facilitate instruction using subitizing cards. You can have students write what they see on a white board, or you can have them talk about what the see, the important thing here is learning to approach our facts from many different angles. There is no one correct answer to each card. There are many different things to see. Seeing and valuing the different ways to group numbers teaches students flexibility in their thinking and offers reinforcement of strategies in our program. They will be practicing many important skills in one activity, counting on, comparing, composing and decomposing and much much more!  This is essential practice for students to become confident fluent math fact masters! 

Multiplication Subtilizing is practiced with groups of dice. 

The subitizing card above represents

2 x 5 =10 or 5 x 2 =10

 2+2+2+2+2 = 10  or 4 + 4 + 2 =10

It all depends on how you see it! 

Subitizing  cards are organized and grouped by when they are covered in the program. 

All +2 cards can be found together and are labeled in the upper right hand corner with +2.

Facts that belong in more than one group can be found in each group. For example 5+2 will be found in both groupings +2 and +5. No need to sort or go on the hunt for the facts being covered they all are included in each group. This makes organization and teacher use simple and straight forward. 

Flash Cards are 8.5" by 5.5"  Perfect for whole class or small group instruction.

They are made out of durable gloss card stock with UV coating. 

Facts Covered are +1 +2 +3 +4 -1 -2 -3 -4  Doubles + Doubles +1 +5 +6 Doubles-  -5 -6 +7