Subitising:
'What do you see and how do you see it?'
Karen Wilding | Maths Consultant
I delivered an early maths training session recently to a group of childminders.
One of the facts I shared was that, according to a recent British Psychological Society report (Sept 2019), 1 in 3 UK children feel anxious about maths by the age of 6.
This is a really worrying statistic and tells us that we need to review how we teach early years maths, because maths should be for everyone.
Report: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/maths-anxiety-affects-third-young-children.
The EYFS 2021 educational programmes require us to encourage children to ‘have a go’ at maths – we want them to have a ‘can do’ attitude to solve a puzzle, spot a pattern, notice a similarity or difference, tell us what they see etc. Early years maths should be about children being curious and exploring – not being frightened of answering in case they get an answer wrong.
EYFS 2021: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974907/EYFS_framework_-_March_2021.pdf.
One of the questions I asked during the training that really resonated with the childminders: if we make maths about calculations and numerical thinking based on being absolute, are we setting up the children to fail? If we ask a child, for example, ‘How many?’ might they panic and worry about getting it wrong? Would it be better if we said, for example, ‘I think I can see 5 – should we count them together?’ to take the pressure off.
Part of the issue is mistaking what early years maths is all about. Instead of valuing a child’s ability to say counting words in the right order, we should be focusing on playing maths games and, for example –
- Subitising – ask children ‘what can you see?’ rather than focusing on counting.
- Finger numbers – value the child’s ability to show you the correct number of fingers.
- Exploring shape, space and measures in lots of fun ways – maths is holistic.
- Teaching children that numbers are made up of other numbers.
- Repeating number songs and rhymes – lots of times – so children have fun counting.
- Reading maths books with the children and pointing out maths in day-to-day activities.
- Using every opportunity to count and have fun with numbers.
When we are thinking about teaching number, it is essential that the foundations of 1 – 3, including seeing numbers within numbers (conceptual subitising), are in place before we take children to higher numbers. To encourage this, we can use counters, fingers, dots, buttons, pasta, pencils etc and ask the child to ‘say what you see’. However, it is important to keep it simple** so you don’t overwhelm children’s thought processes or distract them from what you are trying to teach.
**Keeping it simple means using the same colour, shape, size and type of object to subitise rather than confusing the child by presenting them with lots of different things that will distract them.
This is a good article about the importance of minimising cognitive load:
https://impact.chartered.college/article/shibli-cognitive-load-theory-classroom/.
To support making maths fun, we should introduce maths as part of other activities, as part of our blended curriculum. We don’t need a maths bookshelf – maths can be found in lots of books we read; we don’t need a maths shelf of resources – they should be accessible in different parts of the setting, inside and outside, for everyone to use.
Then, as we plan our curriculum, we can introduce subitising games as part of our daily activities:
- Hold up 3 fingers and ask the child ‘what can you see?’ – they might count to 3 but that’s not what you are asking – you want them to hold up 3 of their fingers.
- Spot flowers on a walk or leaves in the garden – ask the child ‘what can you see?’ and model talking about the pattern. For example, 3 flowers might look like a face (2 eyes and a nose) or a butterfly (2 wings and a body in the middle).
- When you put pasta on a child’s plate, show them how to make patterns with it and ask the child what they can see. Can they, for example, see a pattern of 2 and 2? As they learn more, they will know that it makes a total of 4 – but not yet!
- Encourage the children to make their own food, using words such as 'half' in conversation and asking them to share out the apple slices between them.
- As children's subitising skills improve, you could use simple 5 frames to subitise – but stick to playing with seeing numbers children fully understand what they are seeing.
Remember, early number sense is not about counting or knowing numbers – it’s about comparing, recognising and seeing numbers and numbers within numbers. When the child recognises what they see, you can then introduce the number word and the digit – say ‘three’ and show them ‘3’.
Making maths fun also means, as children's understanding grows, they will learn from conceptual subitising that they can instantly know what is there by seeing it, rather than counting it ... they will know it’s 3 flowers (like you did in the picture of sunflowers above) because they have seen the pattern of 3 before. You can do it because you have had lots of practice doing it - the children need that sort of play as well.
You can also make use of real-world opportunities to explore maths, for example –
- Make food together – spot patterns, shape, sizes, capacity, weight, sequence.
- Explore autumn leaves – spot patterns, symmetry, shape, size.
- Make bark rubbings - spot patterns and compare them with the brick rubbings you made recently.
- Notice numbers when you go for walks in the local community – when you spot numbers and letters on signs and labels talk about the shape of numbers and name them.
- Sing number songs and rhymes – numbers go up and down in 1s and 2s - add actions or puppets to the songs to keep the children engaged for longer.
- Play matching and sorting games – Orchard games have a good selection.
- Play with dice and dominoes – talk about the patterns on the faces.
- Use positional numbers during a game – the child is lining up 1st, 2nd or 3rd.
- Read books which encourage mathematical thinking - for example, explore distance when reading 'The Snail and the Whale' and 'We're going on a bear hunt' by Julia Donaldson.
We need to take the anxiety out of maths and make it fun!
The most important advice: don't miss opportunities for maths learning during inspection...
Chat soon, Sarah.