If you’ve read the previous post on the fundamentals of counting, then subitizing is not news to you. If you haven’t yet, here is a link to that post! Tenzi is one of my favorite at-home-fun-for-everyone games that has a ton of valuable math packed into it. You can purchase the game packaged as “Tenzi” or you can find yourself a few sets of ten six-sided dice and get playing. Dice are one of our richest models of quantity due to their regular and mathematically rich dot patterns. Tenzi is what I would call a secret numeracy game. It is so fun and appealing to all that you hardly realize the brain-training it provides! It allows students to practice their rapid quantity naming and comparison skills while competing with each other in a fun and high energy way.
The most traditional rules of play:
Everybody has ten six-sided dice. On cue the rolling begins. Roll all the dice and quickly see what common values you have. Decide what dice to let lie and which to re-roll, with a goal of all ten dice presenting the same value! Will 5 be your lucky number? 3? The Kindergarten LOVES Tenzi and we bring it out often during our GameLab classes. Check out a round below!