Subitising Whiteboard Game for Foundation: Flash Dots
Flash Dots is a subitising game for Foundation by Teach This, an interactive whiteboard game aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Students recognise and name collections up to 5 without counting and see the parts that make each collection. There are 12 flashes, and each dot pattern stays on screen for 3 seconds before the answer appears by itself. Patterns include dice arrangements, rows, shapes and scattered dots. Each answer slide shows the number and a prompt, such as 4 in the corners and 1 in the middle. A game takes 5 to 8 minutes. It opens in Microsoft PowerPoint on any interactive whiteboard, panel or projector, with no macros, no student logins and no student data collected.
Use it as a daily number talk at the start of a Foundation maths lesson, asking students to explain how they saw each group. It replaces a set of handmade dot cards, and the automatic timing keeps every flash the same length.
Learning goals
- We are learning to recognise and name the number of objects in a collection up to 5 using subitising.
- We are learning to partition and combine collections up to 10 using counting strategies.
- We are learning to subitise small collections of objects.
- We are learning to connect number names, numerals and quantities to 10.
Curriculum alignment
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
Pause on the answer slide and count the dots together, then replay the game so students see the same patterns again.
Extensions
Ask students to show each amount on their fingers in two different ways, such as 2 and 3 or 4 and 1.