LOTS OF DOTS! AND MORE LOTS OF DOTS!

Hi All,

Lots of Dots is simply a paper with, well, lots of dots on it. The objective is to count the dots accurately. Sounds simple. And boring. But, give this to kids and watch out! They can't get enough.

The idea is for students to realize that lots of things are best counted with a strategy, not just one by one, though early on counting by ones and one-to-one correspondence are huge milestones.

For Grades 1 and up though, we can begin to think about maybe counting by twos or fives or tens. These methods are not only more efficient, but usually more accurate. Meanwhile as you do this, you build and reinforce the notion of place value. If I give you a mess of dots and you count by tens and circle each group of ten, and then count the remaining ones, you are using place value ideas.

Not only is this faster and more accurate, you can also more easily check your count than if you went by ones. Have students try Lots of Dots first and then debrief. Share strategies. Compare answers. On more than one occasion I've had students with two different answers for the same set of dots explain to me that their answers, though different, were both correct, because they used different strategies. It reveals a lot about student thinking and conception of number.

When done with the first two pages, try Lots of Dots Special Edition where the dots are different shapes and have different values. Kids even love to make their own Lots of Dots papers and challenge each other. I bet I could sell a book filled with just pages of lots of dots. Someday, maybe. :)

Here's the link to the pdf's. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BfgkouzcTWY-SHRr5oAPqd8kvqBEBAue/view?usp=sharing

Enjoy! All the best,
Bob

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