You can make maths much more fun if you mix in some songs and imaginary play. Today we’ve been counting backwards and singing ‘Ten in the Bed’.
First we took a cardboard box and used some fabric scraps to make a bedsheet, pillows and blanket.
Then we made 10 little people and numbered them 1 to 10. With a bit of a squash and a squeeze they all fitted in.
Then it was time for some singing – and lots of giggling as Little rolled her people out of bed. We’ve done an alternative version of this using our sofa as a bed and Big’s favourite teddies to make up the numbers. It’s very funny when you’re 3 to make your teds whizz out of bed!
A great book choice to go with this is Ten in the Bedby Penny Dale, which has beautiful illustrations.
We have four colours of bean bags so we chose four coloured chalks to match. We drew four different shapes and numbered them 1 to 4. Then it was time to play.
Have a go at colour matching – can you throw the blue bean bag into the blue shape?
Have a go with numbers - can you throw a bean bag onto the number 1? onto the number 2?
Have a go with shapes - can you throw all the bean bags into the circle?
With older children you can let them throw at the targets and add up the scores as you go along.
‘I’ll do it all by myself’ is being said many times a day by Little at the moment. She’s also really enjoying counting, so we combined her two passions, with a dash of chocolate chips, in this fun counting game.
We started off by writing numbers on small pieces of paper. No chance of me writing any though as ‘I’ll do it all by myself’ said Little. She wrote numbers from 1 – 5 and also a couple of zeros (which she regretted later!) It’s great to see how she’s absorbed these numbers from ideas such as our number line so she can now write them by herself.
Then we put one piece of paper in each hole of a muffin tin and I gave her a pot of raisins and some chocolate chips.
Then I asked her if she’d like to play a counting game. ‘You tell me what to do mummy and then I’ll do it by myself’. I asked her to count out the right number of raisins/choc chips to match the number in each muffin hole. (So she has to recognise the written number and match the right number of real objects to the written digit).
And the prize at the end of the game for getting all the counting right – eating the raisins and chocolate chips of course. Which she did all by herself too!
If you’re trying to nurture a new skill in a child I think you should always take your cue from them. Think about what they love and enjoy and use this as the medium to teach the lesson. Little currently adores ducks. She got a little yellow duck in a party loot bag which is accompanying her everywhere – and she quite likes ‘being’ a duck herself. She’s also very interested in numbers – a skill which I’m keen for her to practise. Today she wanted to do some painting so, to encourage those numbers, we decided to make a duck number line.
I’ve blogged about number lines before and I think they’re a really useful way to incorporate written numbers into your child’s environment. Ours is strung along the kitchen window – a prominent position so Little is often looking at it. We refer to it most days, for example when we’re counting out spoons to set the table, so we’re gently reinforcing the number progression and linking the physical number of spoons with the written number symbols on the line. Of course, once things have been on display for a while they become a little stale and you walk past without noticing so I like to change the pictures on the number line to keep it interesting for Little. We’ve previously done ladybirds, autumn leaves and Christmas trees.
To make a duck number line: I cut out some duck shapes from pieces of card and Little set about paining them. Let you child be creative here and paint them any colour they like. Little was quite clear that she wanted pink and yellow ducks – so who am I to argue! Holding the paintbrush is good motor skill practice and the mark-making aspect paves the way for later writing. You can see from the vlog that she can’t resist swirling all her paints together – more experimenting.
Once the ducks were dry Little added eyes and numbers using a felt pen. She was determined to write the numbers herself so I encouraged her to have a try – are you impressed with how well she did them? As one reason for making the number line is to have her see the (correct) written form of the numbers I added a small (correct) version of each numeral too – careful not to make Little think that her version was in anyway not good enough.
Children learn in a multi-sensory way and adding other experiences to a lesson re-inforces what you’re teaching – so why not add in some song while you’re painting and counting. Hope you like her rendition of Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day!
We’re going to extend the play with ducks by adding them to the bathwater tonight – so Little can enjoy some small-world role play. And tomorrow we’re off to feed the ducks at the local pond – so she can learn about the real world and see some ducks in action.
And just in case you don’t know all the words and would like to sing with your child, the lyrics are here. If you’re not painting, you should hold up the corresponding number of fingers, and swim them off like the little ducks:
We have updated our Autumn number line today with 10 beautiful Christmas trees. The number line hangs in the kitchen window and is proving really useful as it’s always on hand when any of the children have a question about numbers. We refer to it a lot and I have particularly noticed my 3 year old is now very interested in counting and also on the look out for numbers when we’re out and about. I’m sure having the number line in a prominent position is helping her.
We made our trees using a great idea from Notimeforflashcards which used a fork dipped in paint to create the needles on the tree. (If you don’t already know this blog you should take a look as it’s full of great ideas.) We then went sticker crazy to add some decorations. I did think about having 1 bauble on tree number one, 2 on tree number two and so on – but the kids were so enthusiastic with the stickers I just let them go for it. They were singing carols while they merrily decorated their trees! We sorted them in size order to give a visual link to the fact that the numbers are increasing – and then pegged them up.
This week we have a toy shop to play with. Very simple to set up, all you need is:
A till – we have a toy till which we filled with real (small denomination) money. If younger children are playing – who might be tempted to put the coins in their mouth – you might like to make some enlarged replica coins from cardboard (which you might like to laminate) so they can’t swallow them. If you haven’t got a toy till already you might like to add one of these to your Christmas list – or simply use yogurt pots filled with the coins instead. Add some old till receipts from your purse.
Use real money and till recipts
Something to sell – we made a grocery store and used some toy food and some egg boxes and empty packets of food.
the produce section
Baskets and bags / purses – We have a couple of mini shopping baskets and each child had an old handbag with a purse with a few coins in.
Signs – making an open/closed sign and some listing the shop’s special offers is a good way to sneak in some letters and reading. As you can see, we are nativity play crazy here so our store is called the Bethlehem Shop!
open for business
include some letter recognition
Shopping lists – provide some paper and pencils and give the children a chance to practice ‘writing’ with a purpose, so they don’t forget anything on their list.
'write' your shopping list
In addition to role-playing the shopping experience, with a child being the shop keeper and some being customers, using coins allows you to include some maths skills. You can add price labels to the food and help the children count out the right number of coins to buy what they want. You can also sort the coins into denominations to put them in the right till drawers – which works on classifying and matching skills.
One child playing today was really interested in the coins and spent time sorting them into colour groups and also size groups. Just shows that providing children with open-ended resources allows them to be creative and explore areas which they are interested in.
Simply cut out the ladybird shapes from the red card. Cut out heads from the black card and stick on to the bodies. Draw a line down the centre of each ladybird body. Then cut out lots of black circles.
Work with the children to count and stick one circle on the first ladybird, two on the second, and so on. Help the children to write the correct number on each labybird and see if they can arrange them into ascending order. Stick them up somewhere prominent – you can use tack or string and pegs.
You can refer to the ladybirds to help you count – perhaps to work out how many cups you need to get everyone a drink. Or you can use them for number games. Pick a ladybird to start with and see if your child can count on two more. Pick another ladybird and ask your child to work out what one less would be. Ask each child if they can find the laybird which has their age number on. Simply having the numbers written down where your child can view them regularly will help them to become familiar with them – and soon they will be spotting them in other places too.
1. On a dry Autumn day, take a nature walk and collect an assortment of fallen leaves – lots of different shapes, colours and sizes.
2. Talk with the children about the leaves, why they fall, how the trees change appearance. What colour leaves have you found? What different shapes and sizes? Do you know the names of the trees they have fallen from?
3. When you get home make rubbings of some of the leaves. Place the leaf flat on the table with a piece of paper on top. Using a wax crayon (in autumnal red, green, brown, orange or yellow) carefully rub over the hidden leaf and watch the print emerge as if by magic. Use the flat length of the wax crayon rather than the end you would use when writing. Make rubbings of 10 leaves of different shapes and sizes. Using two colours on some leaves looks good.
Use long careful strokes
4. Cut out the leaves and stick them on to a piece of paper or card in a contrasting colour. Cut around each leaf on this paper/card, leaving a small border to frame each leaf.
5. Work with the children to arrange the 10 leaves in a line, starting with the smallest leaf and progressing to the biggest. Then write the numbers 1 to 10, one on each leaf, working from the smallest to the largest. This helps the children see the numbers as increasing.
6. We laminated the leaves to make them sturdier, but this is optional.
7. Stick your leaves up! We used a string and tiny pegs (the type you can get to hang up Christmas cards). Place them somewhere prominent that the children will see frequently and refer to them – for example to count out how many plates you need at lunch time. The children will soon start talking about the numbers and recognising them.
Please feel free to use any of these ideas with your children at home, school or any place you teach and play. If you would like to share a post on a blog or site, you may use one picture so long as you include a link to the original post. Please do not re-post the whole article or distribute printed-out content without written permission from the original author. You can contact me at cathy (at) nurturestore (dot) co (dot) uk. Thank you.
We have updated our 
1. On a dry Autumn day, take a nature walk and collect an assortment of fallen leaves – lots of different shapes, colours and sizes.
