How many do you see?

Twenty-four cards to cut out and flash. Page one uses dice faces, page two a five-and-some frame — the two arrangements a child has already met, because recognising a quantity needs something familiar to recognise.

Ages 4–7 · 2 pages

Download US Letter PDFor A4

How to use it

These are cards, not a worksheet, and the reason is timing. The whole claim behind subitizing is that a child sees four as four before there is time to count to four — and a page they can stare at for a minute tests nothing at all. Show a card for about a second, then turn it over. If your child starts counting, the card was up too long. Scattered dots are a much harder task and a fair test only later; everything here uses an arrangement they have seen on a dice or a ten frame.

Every page in this pack

  1. Subitizing cards page 1: twelve cards showing one to six animals in dice patterns.

    Dice patterns, 1 to 6

  2. Subitizing cards page 2: twelve cards showing six to ten animals in a five-and-some ten frame.

    Five and some, 6 to 10

Printing notes

  • Print at 100%, not "fit to page" — scaling shrinks the digits and the whole point is that your child writes them at a steady size.
  • Black-and-white and draft mode are fine. Nothing on these sheets depends on colour.
  • Slide a sheet into a punched pocket and a dry-wipe pen turns one page into a hundred goes.

The thinking behind it

What Is Subitizing? (Seeing a Number Without Counting) — Read the full guide