About Games with Counters

These games, including our “How Many are Hiding?” game, help children practice identifying how many items are in a collection without needing to count each one separately—this is called subitizing. When counting ‘how many,’ children are also reciting number words in the correct order, using one-to-one correspondence, and practicing the cardinal principle—or knowing that the last word said when counting a set represents how many there are in all.

Materials Needed

Counters or tokens, Paper or cloth, Large Dot Cards and Game Board, Directions

What's the math in these games?

In order to know many items are hiding, children must remember how many there were, determine how many there are now, and figure out how many were taken away, a key part of composing and decomposing number (adding and subtracting). As children gain more experience with these games, increase the number of objects used. Children also enjoy doing the hiding — in this case, they must work to make sure their partner correctly finds out how many are hiding!

To play Copy My Dots (with counters) print these large format dot cards and game board.
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The Power of Yet for Math Mindset (English)