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Building Math PK-2

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Building Math PK-2 > Strategies > Dot Cards

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.

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    Example: Use This Strategy In in the Classroom

  • 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

  • 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.

    • Factors Supported by this Strategy

    Learner Background
    Safety
    Socioeconomic Status
    Sleep
    Primary Language
    Adverse Experiences
    Social and Emotional Learning
    Sense of Belonging
    Cognition
    Speed of Processing
    Short-term Memory
    Working Memory
    Inhibition
    Long-term Memory
    Attention
    Numeracy and Mathematics

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