Being able to look at an amount and know how many there are without counting is called subitizing. It's what we do when we look at dice. If you roll the number five, you don't have to count the pips to know that you have rolled a five. Being able to subitize plays an important roll in developing strong number sense. When we practice this skill at school it prepares us for future math capabilities like unitizing, counting on and composing and decomposing numbers-all valuable components of number sense.
