Dot Cards

Overview

Dot cards build number sense and promote early math skills, particularly Spatial Skills and Non-symbolic Number knowledge. By quickly recognizing spatial arrangements of dots, such as those on a dice or domino, students are able to see how many dots there are without Counting.

Use It in the Classroom

Starting at 2:10, watch how this elementary teacher uses dot cards to encourage Non-symbolic Number understanding. By asking students to explain how they got their answers, this teacher supports their math Language Skills and development of Mathematical Flexibility.

Teachers can create dot cards with simple supplies such as index cards or paper plates. Dot cards can be integrated in many ways, from math talks during which teachers flash a dot card and ask students how many dots they saw and to explain their reasoning to math card games as a fun, motivational activity.

Design It into Your Product

Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

Subitizing Flash Cards displays dot cards with varying objects to encourage pattern recognition and understanding of part-whole relationships. Because learners must select the numeral of the corresponding quantity displayed on a dot card, they also build their number understanding.

Products can build on young learners' intuitive Non-symbolic Number knowledge by providing different arrangements of the same number of dots. This encourages more complex thinking of how dots can be separated into composite parts; for example, six dots can be four and two or three and three. This part-whole thinking is foundational for basic Operations and can impact learners' understanding of Place Value.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Number Sense

Topic that explores how the brain works to understand numbers and numerical magnitudes on Digital Promise's Research Map

Number Sense with Dot Cards

Multiple lesson ideas, including games, with dot cards

Subitizing with Dot Cards

Virginia DOE lesson plan with dot card templates

Ten Frames and Dot Cards

Different ways to use dot cards in the classroom

Using Dot Cards to Build Number Sense

Blog on using dot cards to learn subitizing