Splat!

Splat Image

Welcome to Splat!  You are only moments away from a VERY POWERFUL, highly interactive number sense strategy that can be used at any grade level!

This post includes 50 (fifty!) free, downloadable PowerPoint math lessons!

Watch the video, download some (or all) of the lessons, and experience what happens when you unleash this resource in your classroom!

I’ve been excited to click the Publish button on this post for several weeks!  It’s time!

 

UPDATE:  The Fraction Splat! Series (with 20 more downloadable lessons) is now available!

 

After reading this blog post, take a look at  THE 12 MOST POPULAR MATH STRATEGIES AND DOWNLOADS ON THIS BLOG.

 

 

 

Splat Through 10
How many dots are under the Splat?

Splat Level 1 Image

Splat 1.1
Splat 1.2
Splat 1.3
Splat 1.4
Splat 1.5

 

Splat Through 20
How many dots are under the Splat?
Splat Level 2 Image

Splat 2.1
Splat 2.2
Splat 2.3
Splat 2.4
Splat 2.5

 

Multiple Splats
(Note:  Splats that are the same color must cover the same number.)

Splat Level 3 Image

 

Splat 3.1  –  multiple splats

Splat 3.2  –  multiple splats

Splat 3.3  –  multiple splats

Splat 3.4  –  multiple splats

Splat 3.5  –  multiple splats

 

 

Instant Multiple Splat
(Note:  An additional feature of this level is the opportunity to ask, “What could the total be?”)

Splat Level 4 Image

 

Splat 4.1  –  Instant Multiple Splats

Splat 4.2  –  Instant Multiple Splats  

Splat 4.3  –  Instant Multiple Splats

Splat 4.4  –  Instant Multiple Splats

Splat 4.5  –  Instant Multiple Splats

 

 

 

2-Color Splat
(Splats of different colors must have different values.)

Splat Level 5 Image

Splat 5.1     2-color Splat

Splat 5.2     2-color Splat

Splat 5.3     2-color Splat

Splat 5.4     2-color Splat

Splat 5.5     2-color Splat

 

 

Instant 2-Color Splat
 
Splat 6.1     Instant 2-color Splat

Splat 6.2     Instant 2-color Splat

Splat 6.3     Instant 2-color Splat

Splat 6.4     Instant 2-color Splat

Splat 6.5     Instant 2-color Splat

 

 

 

Instant 2-Variable Splat       
(Splats of different colors must have different values.  Splats of the same color must have the same value.)

Various 2

 

Splat 7.1    Instant 2-variable Splat

Splat 7.2    Instant 2-variable Splat

Splat 7.3    Instant 2-variable Splat

Splat 7.4    Instant 2-variable Splat

Splat 7.5    Instant 2-variable Splat

 

 

Number Splat
(Note:  Only the numbers circled on the screen may be used.)

Various 3

Splat 8.1  –  Number Splat

Splat 8.2  –  Number Splat

Splat 8.3  –  Number Splat

Splat 8.4  –  Number Splat

Splat 8.5  –  Number Splat

 

 

Instant Number Splat

Splat 9.1  –  Instant Number Splat

Splat 9.2  –  Instant Number Splat

Splat 9.3  –  Instant Number Splat

Splat 9.4  –  Instant Number Splat

Splat 9.5  –  Instant Number Splat

 

 

Instant Number Splat with 2 Variables
(Note:  Only the numbers circled on the screen may be used, and Splats of different colors must have different values.)

splat update level 10

Splat 10.1  –  Instant 2-Variable Number Splat

Splat 10.2  –  Instant 2-Variable Number Splat

Splat 10.3  –  Instant 2-Variable Number Splat

Splat 10.4  –  Instant 2-Variable Number Splat

Splat 10.5  –  Instant 2-Variable Number Splat

 

 

 

NOTE:  I wrote each of these lessons using PowerPoint, so I recommend playing them in PowerPoint.  If you do not have PowerPoint, you may want to download the PowerPoint viewer so that you can play the lessons.

 

UPDATE:  The Fraction Splat! Series (with 20 more downloadable lessons) is now available!

Other Posts and Resources Which May Be of Interest

Tiled Area Questions
Primary Tile Questions
3 Powerful Tile Strategies (and 40 new downloadable pages)

The Maze Hundreds Chart
Introducing Cube Connectors
Provide Massive Space to Notice

 

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I would treasure hearing about your experiences using Splat! to promote number sense in your classroom!

All my best,
Steve

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77 Comments

  1. Sheryl Williams on February 28, 2023 at 10:46 am

    Do you have any videos of you, or another teacher actually going through this with students? I know that the teacher responses to kids comments, questions are of utmost importance. I’d really like to see the program in action with real students. Part of the success are “rich conversations” . I’d love to see that modeled. Thank you!

    • Steve Wyborney on March 1, 2023 at 6:26 am

      Hi, Sheryl. While there aren’t classroom videos on the website, this might be a very helpful video that I made about answer Splat questions: https://youtu.be/YFr8AlXA3X0

      Thanks,
      Steve

  2. Lauren on January 15, 2021 at 7:03 am

    Is there a way to download all documents at once instead of clicking through and downloading each one?

    Thanks!

    • Steve Wyborney on February 2, 2021 at 5:38 pm

      Hi, Lauren. I don’t have a way to do that at this time. I do know that would save a lot of time and I really appreciate the question.

  3. Nicole Cooper on January 12, 2021 at 1:40 pm

    I just downloaded one of the powerpoints but it will not let me put it in present mode. Any idea how to fix this. I love these and want to use them in the classroom!

    • Steve Wyborney on January 12, 2021 at 4:45 pm

      Sometimes when you download a file it is in protected mode and you need to enable it to be presented.

  4. natalie schaub on January 7, 2021 at 3:23 pm

    I love the maze 100 chart!!! Any chance you could create/have available for higher numbers?

    • Steve Wyborney on January 12, 2021 at 4:27 pm

      Thanks, Natalie. I love that chart, too! I’ll add this request to my list on my desktop. The list is getting a little long, so the fastest way to get that into your hands is probably for you to change the numbers on the chart. However, I am adding it now. 🙂

  5. Sanela on October 12, 2020 at 5:21 pm

    I absolutely love Splat! I noticed that when playing it through Google Slides, the transparency feature doesn’t work. Is there any trick to get it working or to input it into the slides? Thanks for sharing!

  6. Miho Shimura on September 23, 2020 at 8:39 am

    Thank you soooo much, Steve, for sharing these slides! You are so kind and generous! This must have taken a long time and what a great resource to challenge students to think critically and explain their reasoning. Thank you so very much!

    • Steve Wyborney on September 25, 2020 at 6:39 am

      I’m so happy to share them! Enjoy!

  7. Marcia Wohl on March 30, 2020 at 6:14 pm

    A truly laudable compilation! I can not say enough about the amazing resource you provide. I can only say that my students will truly benefit from such clear, concise and FUN tasks. I attended the Virtual Math Summit last summer hosted by Christina Tondevold where I first saw you present your work. I have recommended you to colleagues and used some of the tasks with my students. Now that we are doing remote instruction, these will be a lifesaver to provide some interesting and rich items to use online. Thank you!!

  8. […] Splat! By Steve Wyborney […]

  9. Erin on May 20, 2019 at 6:09 am

    I love this lesson idea for teaching algebra. I just wanted to point out that the slide at 5:30 in your video shows 11 dots, not 10.

    • Denise on November 20, 2020 at 9:24 am

      Yes! Love Splat.

      I noticed the same thing. 2x + 3 = 10 there were four dots under each splat. Your number would be 11.

      • Steve Wyborney on November 23, 2020 at 11:03 am

        Great catch! I’ll try to get that updated soon.

  10. Gabriele on March 12, 2019 at 10:50 am

    Hi, Steve. Thank you for making such a wonderful and creative and fun resource for subitizing and decomposing and composing numbers. Our school is lucky enough to have Smart Boards in each room, but we don’t have the budget the purchase Microsoft Office (and Power Point) for our Smart Boards. I’ve tried converting your PPTs to pdf’s for Adobe, which we do have on the Smart Board. However, because your PPTs rely on animations, the end result isn’t usable for the game. I was going to edit the PPT to put each new event on its own slide, and then convert that to a pdf. I think that will work. However, I just wanted to reach out and see if you have any alternate resource for playing Splat! when teachers don’t have Powerpoint. Alternatively, if you don’t, I can email you the pdf’s once I finish converting them for other teachers to use in the future. Best wishes, and thank you again for this activity!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on March 25, 2019 at 12:38 pm

      Hi, Gabriele. I think the best solution in this case is to save the PPTs into a google drive and then to play them using Google Slides. Since I’ve made this easier to do with the newest post, you may want to use the Splats which begin on Day 06 of 20 Days of Number Sense and Rich Math Talk. https://stevewyborney.com/?p=1891

  11. Lauri on January 19, 2019 at 2:43 pm

    I found an oversight on the 5:25 minute on your Splat video. It says 2s + 3 = 10 and shows four dots under each of 2 Splats and 3 dots showing. These look wonderful. I can’t wait to try them, and thanks for sharing!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 20, 2019 at 8:44 pm

      Great catch! Thank you!

  12. Anita Morgan on November 8, 2018 at 2:21 am

    Thank you for this. I will be using it in class now that I have it and share with my whole grade level. Can’t wait to get started.

  13. Catherine Castillo on November 5, 2018 at 9:28 am

    Hi Steve,
    First of all, thank you for sharing these amazing resources! I am excited to continue to use them with students and teachers. I was re-watching the video and noticed at about 5:30 you show a splat that has 4 and 4 covered and 3 uncovered and the total says it is 10. Am I missing something or is this just a mistake?

  14. 2manyteachers on June 28, 2018 at 10:38 am

    Thank you for these work sequences. They look simple but they involve many skills and collaborative work. I strongly recommend.

  15. Cindy Ortiz on May 22, 2018 at 1:11 am

    Found a mistake on the 5th example of 14.1. The total number of dots, as pictured in the model diagram, should be 10 instead of 9.

  16. Lynn on February 3, 2018 at 1:30 pm

    I love all of your resources. My students are engaged and talking about math. I also loved your “Talk a mile a minute template”. I have created 95 slides of vocabulary themed words that I will send you (Steve) and you can share on your site, if you’d like. I teach fourth grade and my students love these… they are talking a mile a minute!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 12, 2018 at 6:26 am

      Wow! Nice going, Lynn! It’s great to hear all that you are doing with it. Talk a Mile a Minute is such a wonderful activity. I’m glad you have tapped into the power of it. I’m very impressed with how far you have taken it!

  17. C. Donnow on January 31, 2018 at 5:38 pm

    Thanks so very much for sharing these! I have a 1/2/3 combo class and there is something here for everyone. My kids love them!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 12, 2018 at 6:27 am

      Thank you! I’m working to release – eventually – a series called Splat in Motion. I appreciate the kind feedback!

  18. Deb on December 27, 2017 at 6:00 am

    Hi Steve,
    Thanks for sharing your resources. Just a quick question, can you please check your clip at about 5 minutes and 31 seconds because it is incorrect (there are two splats each with four shapes underneath and three shapes not covered which is equal to 11 however your total says 10).

  19. Andrea Boyd on December 14, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    Are these available in Spanish? Thanks!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on December 14, 2017 at 8:29 pm

      Hi, Andrea. I don’t currently have a version in Spanish, but that is a fantastic idea! Would you recommend that I translate all that is in the yellow text boxes?

  20. Tracy on December 8, 2017 at 8:39 am

    Can’t wait to see what you create

  21. Charla Gonzales on November 24, 2017 at 11:59 am

    Shared! I’m pretty sure a few friends would like to read this.

  22. Tracy B on November 13, 2017 at 2:05 pm

    Love this idea. Im sure the students will too. Can I just make an observation? On your video explaining SPLAT, at the 5:23 point, you show a number 10 in the corner, but 11 dots. Is that a mistake or some other way of using SPLAT? I am a little confused on that one.

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on December 7, 2017 at 8:27 pm

      Great catch! It’s a mistake. That one mistake actually gave me an idea for a blog series which I’m going to release soon.

    • Dylan on January 18, 2018 at 2:09 pm

      I love your website I played it in school today for math arithmetic please make more

  23. Tracey Poole on November 4, 2017 at 10:13 pm

    Can’t wait to play Splat with my students. What a great resource. Will absolutely share this with our staff. Thanks for sharing Steve.

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on November 10, 2017 at 8:34 am

      My pleasure, Tracey. I would love to hear about your journey with Splat! Thank you for sharing!

  24. Carleigh on October 23, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    Amazing. I will be sharing with our k teachers as well at our school. Number talks have been a key focus at our school. Great work! Thank you!!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on October 24, 2017 at 7:03 pm

      Thanks, Carleigh!

  25. Katie on September 25, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    Maybe I missed something but in your video, at 5:25, you have a sum of 10. The shown dots are 3 and there are 4 under each SPLAT. That is 11. I watched the video again but think I may be missing something.

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on September 30, 2017 at 8:29 pm

      Katie, I think you are seeing it correctly. I made a mistake in the video. Maybe even more than one. Thank you for taking time to watch the video and to comment. I always enjoy hearing from readers!

    • m on October 26, 2017 at 7:39 am

      I noticed that too… the total should be 11, not 10

  26. Joanne Mallory on August 3, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    Hi Steve!
    I just watched your Building Math Minds presentation and am curious about where I can find Splat in Motion. Can you you direct me to this?
    Thanks,
    Joannne

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on August 4, 2017 at 8:53 am

      Hi, Joanne. Splat in Motion isn’t quite finished yet. I’m adding to it and would like to release all 60 Splat in Motion lessons at once. I’m wanting to go through and add the transparent slide to each one so that will take me a bit longer. If you subscribe to the blog, you’ll have an email in your box with a link to those lessons moments after I post it. Thanks for watching the video!

  27. Lori Emilson on February 25, 2017 at 2:54 pm

    I can’t wait to use Splat! in the classroom. I will definitely be sharing this with our teachers too! Thanks so much for sharing – I appreciate your hard work!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 25, 2017 at 4:19 pm

      Thanks for the comment, Lori. I’m very happy to share. I’ll keep writing more resources.

  28. Joshua on February 23, 2017 at 12:40 am

    Steve, another enthusiastic user report. My 4 year old and I played/talked through the first set and she really enjoyed it. I might follow Simon Gregg’s example and make some physical manipulatives to recreate the activity and also let her set up challenges to give to the rest of the family.

  29. Scott Cox on February 21, 2017 at 12:34 pm

    Hi Steve, I love this idea! It is crying out for a Javascript application that can live on the web for people who don’t use PowerPoint. I’ll see how long I can put it off before I am compelled to start adapting it… Best regards, Scott

  30. Marian Dingle on February 21, 2017 at 9:01 am

    Sorry, but this was just too long to put in a Twitter post. I have a Montessori class of 4th and 5th graders, and we began on your first 2 Splat sets. I could see their speed grow as they were able to subitize with confidence.

    But then, we began Set 3 today (only one color splat) and they got it instantly, with almost as much speed! Amazing! When I showed them the algebraic equations they were solving, they were impressed with themselves, and now want to generate them each time themselves.

    I can’t tell you how much I think of your ability to develop these and also share them so freely with the world! This is a game-changer for sure.

  31. Laura M on February 20, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    HI! I LOVE ALL OF YOUR WORK! Thank so for sharing. Can you please explain to me in your video at minute 5:22 where it ends with 2(S) + 3 = 10… is that a non examples b/c I think it should be 2(S) + 2 = 10… apologize if I’ve missed something – I just want to be sure when I pass this along that I can explain that part!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 20, 2017 at 7:56 pm

      Hi, Laura. Thank you so much for the comment and the question. What you see at the 5:22 mark is purely an error. It should say 11 rather than 10. I didn’t intend it to be a non-example. It was actually a typo in the number box in the top corner. I will try to correct it down the road. That is such a great catch on your part. When you do share this out, let everyone know that the lessons should all be correct. Thank you again, for commenting, and nice catch!

    • Susan Jones on March 9, 2017 at 7:33 am

      I saw that too. It says 10 in the corner… but there are 11 dots…

  32. Graham on February 20, 2017 at 7:36 am

    Pure gold Steve! Thanks for taking us along on your learning journey.

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 20, 2017 at 8:24 am

      Thanks, Graham! I stumbled across some additional Splat! strategies very recently that lit an enormously powerful discourse wildfire in the classroom. It all started with something like, “Mr. Wyborney, it’s not possible to put 7 dots under 4 splats… Is it?”

  33. Josh on February 18, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    There appeared to be an error in your video. At the with 1.21 left. You have a ten in the top right corner. Three dots in the middle, and four dots under the two splats. It’s your 2s + 3 = 10 example. I counted 11 dots.

    I do love this for number Sense. Thanks for sharing.

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 20, 2017 at 8:22 am

      Great catch, Josh! If I had an opportunity to change it, I would quickly update it. In the meantime, it has given me an idea. Thank you for pointing it out – and thank you for watching the video. I hope you will enjoy the Splat! series!

    • De on August 29, 2017 at 9:16 am

      It was at 6:49. 4+4+3= 10. That’s not what my fingers said. Otherwise, this is a GREAT resource. Thanks!

      • stevewyborney@gmail.com on September 5, 2017 at 8:16 pm

        Thanks!

  34. Leslie on February 18, 2017 at 8:03 am

    Hi Steve,

    This is a cool resource. I have another question re: Splats about the yellow question boxes. I’ve clicked on them but I don’t think I’m doing it right because nothing happens. I have to rearrange them (as I said, I’m probably missing something!) to read them. Or if anyone else can help, that’d be great.

    Thanks,
    Leslie

  35. Sparky Teaching on February 17, 2017 at 8:36 am

    Like this a lot, Steve… We’ll tweet about it now.

    Really like the way that there is such a breadth of opportunities stemming from the idea, starting with the simple stuff and progressing to all sorts of multi-step calculations.

    Splats are always useful – we used them in teaching word problem skills (see Tip #1 here: http://www.sparkyteaching.com/creative/top-10-tips-for-teaching-word-problems/ ), but this takes it to another level (or ten!). Thanks for sharing!

  36. Leilani on February 15, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    I had the opportunity to share this blog with many teachers today. The excitement in the room could be FELT! Thank you! This is an amazing resource to promote number sense!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 15, 2017 at 9:37 pm

      Thank you for sharing this experience with me. I’m excited to hear this. I’ll be making more soon. I really appreciate your sharing this with other educators as well!

  37. Sue Tarr on February 12, 2017 at 2:22 pm

    This is AMAZING! So excited to hear the rich discourse that takes place in the classroom with these Splats! Thank you for sharing these!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 12, 2017 at 2:31 pm

      Absolutely! I’m so happy to share!

  38. John Golden on February 10, 2017 at 11:22 am

    Had to make something like this in GeoGebra. Great idea! https://www.geogebra.org/m/mEb6rh4B

  39. Sandra Mueller on February 10, 2017 at 7:32 am

    This looks so awesome! We are incorporating Number Talks and this is such a cool, new addition to that program! Thank you so much!

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 12, 2017 at 6:35 am

      What a great idea to tie this in with number talks. Enjoy!

    • Sandy Mueller on March 2, 2017 at 5:46 pm

      Presented several different levels to some of our 5th graders today. I was very engaging and accessible to so many . We had fun creating equations to represent our thinking, using actual variables. Great activity and I can’t wait to use it with other grades!

      • stevewyborney@gmail.com on March 9, 2017 at 9:47 pm

        Thanks for sharing this, Sandy. It’s great to hear about the engagement and how it was accessible. I hope you have a chance to take a look at the 20 new lessons in the Fraction Splat series, too! https://stevewyborney.com/?p=1028

  40. Travis Bower on February 9, 2017 at 4:13 pm

    Typo? at 5:33 11 instead of 10 I think

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 9, 2017 at 5:06 pm

      Thanks, Travis. Which lesson is it in?

    • Sandra Mueller on February 10, 2017 at 7:33 am

      Yes, I noticed that as well.

    • stevewyborney@gmail.com on February 12, 2017 at 6:40 am

      Travis, I see exactly what you mean. Thank you for catching this for me. I originally you thought it was on one of the lesson slides, then realized you pointed me to exactly where it was on the video itself. I really appreciate it. I may not have a chance to record the video again until after I finish the lessons. There is something about your comment that is featuring a really good, completely unexpected opportunity. I haven’t completely pinned it down yet, but the combination of a mistake and a video could lead to some really good math lesson opportunities. Thanks, again!

    • Nik on February 12, 2017 at 6:46 am

      I noticed that too…the rest of the resource is fantastic though, great job! Thank you for all the work you put into this!

    • Tina Risinger on February 16, 2017 at 8:22 am

      I saw that, too!!! 2s +3 can’t be 10.

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