Splat!

Hello there mathematicians. We are going to play a game called Splat by Steve Wyborney. Mm-hmm. You might need a pencil and some paper so you can draw down your ideas and you'll need your subitizing eyes, which means that you're looking for chunks that you recognize instantly without having to count.

Are you ready? Here we go? How many dots are there and how do you see them? Oh, what are you thinking mathematicians? Ah, can you draw down how many dots you think you saw? Okay, shall we have a look together? Great, here's one way of thinking. This person said, I see five like a dice pattern, it's a bit on its side. Ahhh, and that's how some of you saw the dots. Okay, did you see it like this person? They said, I see three in a triangle and two more. Look, see the three in the blue triangle and two more, the pink dots. Uh-huh and they said I, you know, that we think it's five. Five dots all together. And, it is five. Look, ahah and you can see it as three and two or five like a dice. Okay now that you've thought about how many dots are right and how you see them.

Get ready for the challenge. Ready, splat! Aha, so now what we want to know is how many dots are being covered up? Mm-hmm. And because we're working like mathematicians, we're going to think about, what do we already know and how can we use that to help us? Mmm, so remember what you drew? Yeah, we're trying to use what we saw not, not counting everything by one's. And remember this person said that they saw three in a triangle and two more, so they can see the two more, but the triangle's covered. And they said, I think that means three dots are covered. Ahh, can you see how they're using reasoning and they're not having to count them? Mm-hmm, let's see. Oh yeah, there you go. Three dots being covered.

Okay, let's play again. Ready? Here's our next collection. How many dots are there and how do you see them? Ready? Oh, what are you thinking now? You could draw it down, mathematicians. How many dots are there and how do you see them? I like that, you're thinking about, some of you are thinking about, that you might have seen a five in there before, like the one before. That's a good idea. Oh and some of you are thinking about different dice patterns. Okay. Is it like this? Here's one way, one suggestion. This person said, I see five in a dice pattern and two more. Aha and this person said, I see six from a dice pattern and one more. Look. Isn't that amazing, how the same collection of dots we can see them quite differently? Mm-hmm and they both have seven. Yes, look.

All right, are you ready for the splat? Think about holding in your head what you know and how you saw the dots, that's really important. Ready? Here it comes. Splat! Oh and how many dots are being covered? Hmm and we want to use what we already know. So imagine in your mind's eye how many dots you saw. We know there were seven and think about how you saw them and then imagine which of those dots is now covered. Ah, so you might be thinking like this. I saw five like a dice button and two more. Mm-hmm, one of my dots from the five is missing and so are the other two dots. I think there's three dots missing. Do you agree? Mmmm, nice reasoning mathematicians. Let's have a look. Yeah. There's the one dot from the five, that's missing and two more.

Okay, let's do one more. This one is got quite a few dots. Are you ready? Okay how many dots are there and how do you see them? Oh, I know, that was super tricky. Would you like one more look? Here we go. Aha. So what are the chunks that you saw there? You definitely have to use a chunking strategy. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, you could draw it down if you like. Hmm, okay shall we share some other peoples thinking? Okay, so this person said that they see four like a dice pattern, but it's a bit on its side. Can you imagine that in your mind's eye? Imagine four on a dice pattern and a bit on its side. Can you draw that in the air for me? Oh yeah, and then they said, and then there's two more, and then three like the, like an arrow, like the top of an arrow, like a triangle. Let's see. Ah yeah, and look at that, how we can use the color to help us see the chunks that they saw. See the four there in the blue, uh-huh and the two more in the pink, yeah and the three more in the orange. Aha and we know four and two is six, because if we moved those dots around that would be like six on a dice pattern. Mm-hm and six and three more, yeah we could count on, six, seven, eight, nine. It's nine. Or it might be something that you know.

All right, eyeballs ready mathematicians, because here comes the splat. So think about the chunks that you can see there, the four the 2 and the 3. And splat! O oh! Now, let's try to imagine what we already knew in our brains. We knew there was a 4, uh-huh and we knew, yes, there was a 3 and we knew there was a 2. So what part of the 4 is missing? Oh, one part from the 4 you think? And what, is there a part from the three missing? The orange triangle? Ah, so you think there is one missing from the orange arrow or triangle. Mm-hmm and is there any of the pink ones missing? The two? Ah hah, one missing from there too. So we think that there might be three dots being covered by the splat. Let's check to see. Aha, that's great!

Nice reasoning today mathematicians. Until the next time we splat, have a lovely day.