Splat! is an interactive number sense strategy that is accessible to all students, that can be used to develop a visual approach to solving equations. The materials and routine were developed by Steven Wyborney and include over 50 lessons with already-made slides using single splats, multiple splats, and even fractions.

The basic routine starts with a dot talk where students count a series of dots and then share their counting strategies. How many dots are in the picture below, and how did you count them?

Once we know the total number of dots, a splat covers some of the dots and the questions are “How many dots are under the Splat?” and “How do you know?”

The power of SPLAT! is that it has students solving equations. With the SPLAT! above, you just solved x + 7 = 12.

One students are familiar with the routine, you can introduce other algebraic concepts, including multiple splats.

The SPLAT! structure allows students to build up a conceptual understanding of finding an unknown through puzzles which students solve by saying things like”Well, there are 23 all together and I can see 11, so that means there are 12 total under the Splats. Since there are 3 Splats and each Splat is covering the same number of dots, we can say that there are 4 dots under each Splat.”

Which is the same as solving 3x + 12 = 23, but without the formal notation it is accessible to more students. Then the formal notation can be built off of the conceptual understanding of what is going on with the Splats.

The first url links to Steven’s original Splat! series with over 50 lessons using single SPLATS to start, moving up to multiple SPLATS.

The second url links to Steven’s Fraction Splat! series.

For more ideas on using SPLAT! with adult students, watch Some Numbers Walk into a Language Class: Splat!