Free educational resources from Mathematics

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Dominoes Wooden Set with 28 Giant Pieces

A really fun and didactic domino game due to the size of the dominoes. Ideal to encourage counting and reasoning.

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Learning to Count with Dominoes

Dominoes are an excellent educational tool for developing numerical sense and mathematical skills. Based on patterns similar to those found in dice, these tiles help children recognize and name small groupings of numbers, while also promoting skills such as counting, matching, sorting, and more.

If we close our eyes and think about how to represent the number 5, we probably imagine the typical arrangement of dots found on dice or dominoes.

Subitization in Early Childhood

The ability to instantly visualize these objects is known as subitization. It refers to the skill of quickly recognizing the number of elements in a set without needing to count them. In other words, it’s the ability to see a small number of objects and accurately judge how many there are without counting. Common examples of subitization include recognizing the dots on a domino or the face of a die. This skill is part of normal child development, starting in infancy and improving as they grow.

Helping children to compose and decompose numbers allows them to process new information more efficiently. The ability to group known numbers automatically helps prevent counting issues and even aids in performing addition more easily in the future.

Learning Through Dominoes

Dominoes are a great game for recognizing and learning numbers, and they provide a fun way to familiarize children with number concepts. Playing with dominoes helps children associate the symbol of a number with its real meaning — in this case, the number of dots on the correct side of a domino tile. While developing numerical sense might sound boring from an adult’s perspective, matching numbers through dominoes is an excellent way to make it engaging and fun for preschool-aged children.