Good ideas for developing numeracy skills at home.

This booklet has been designed to give parents of Nursery children some ideas about how to help their child develop his/her understanding of numeracy. We all know the importance of learning to read and developing strong literacy skills in the preschool years but this is just as important for numeracy.

Hillhead Nursery

This booklet includes some simple ideas to help your child to develop his/her numeracy skills. Children at this age learn through play so make sure the activities are fun, we want children to understand that maths and numbers can be fun and not something they don’t like. Many of these ideas you will no doubt already be doing but hopefully there will be a few new ideas for you to try out!

Forward Number Word Sequences

Children should be encouraged to say forward number sequences (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) as much as possible so they become confident with these. Numbers from 1-10, then numbers up to 20, then numbers beyond 20. Don’t always start at 1 when you are saying the numbers, try starting at different numbers.

Backward Number Word Sequences

Children should also be encouraged to say backwards number sequences (e.g. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1). Numbers from 5-1, then 10-1. This is much more difficult than forwards counting and will take a lot of practice. Counting forwards up stairs then backwards when you go down is a good idea.

Number Songs Books

There are lots of songs which involve numbers suitable for Nursery age children. Many of these can be found on Youtube along with little videos which are fun to watch.E.g. ‘5 little ducks’, ‘1 little finger, tap, tap, tap’, ‘10 in the bed’. Children could try to hold up the correct number of fingers or set out figures to add on/take away along with the song lyrics.

There are some lovely books available which involve counting and recognising numerals. Even when books aren’t specifically designed to teach numeracy, they can still be used to reinforce simple number concepts.

E.g. When reading the Gruffalo to your child you could ask, ‘How many different animals did the mouse meet?’

More or Less?

An essential skill for children to develop is the understanding of working out ‘more’ or ‘less’ without counting.

E.g. ‘Do you think that I have more peas on my plate than you or less? Why do you think that?’

Recognising Numerals

Counting Objects

Children should have opportunities to count real objects regularly, pointing to each object when counting to develop their ability to count accurately.

E.g. ‘How many teddiesare on your bed? Howmany cushions are onthe sofa?’

Numbers in the Environment

There are numbers all around us and children should be encouraged to look for these. Maybe pick a ‘Number of the Day’ when you are out shopping and see how many of themyour child can find.These could be spotted onnumber plates, road signs,

With the increased use of technology in many houses, children are becoming more familiar with numerals from an early age. Encourage your child to recognise the numerals 1-9 on remote controls,

clocks, door numbers, pricelabels etc.

Writing Numerals

Children begin to be able to write numerals by copying or overwriting. (Overwriting is when your child is just copying over a numeral which is already there.) Writing numerals can be done in a number of ways. People always think that paper and pencil is the only way to practise writing numerals but be creative and use other things which are available to you.

E.g. fingers in the sand, chalk boards,paint brushes with water on the gardenpath (in nice weather!), painting on stones etc.It is important that children form their numerals correctly right from the start so here is a quick guide to how these should be written.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Counting OnChildren should have opportunities to explore simple addition with objects that they can see. E.g. ‘You have 3 teddies on the rug, how many will you have if I put this one on?’

This leads on to more abstract concepts where they can’t see the objects e.g. the same example as above could be done but this time the teddies are in a bag so are unseen.

Practical Subtraction

Children should have opportunities to explore simple subtraction with everyday objects that they can see. E.g. ‘How many chips do you have on your plate? Now you’ve eaten three how many do you have now?’

As with addition, this then leads on to items that they can’t see. E.g. ‘I had four grapes in my tub but I’ve eaten

two, how many must I have left?’

Recognising dice patterns

Playing games with a dice is an excellent way to develop your child’s numeracy skills. Your child will begin by counting the number of dots but will then begin to recognise the dot patterns without having to count the individual dots.

This is a really usefulskill to acquire andwill help them withtheir understandingof number.

Sharing

Through play, children should be encouraged to ‘share’ items fairly. E.g. ‘You have four teddies there, can you share them so that we both get the same amount? How many do we get each?’

Even at this early stage, children should be aware that sometimes items can’t be shared fairly. E.g. ‘There are seven toy figures, can you share them equally between the three teddies? How many do the teddies get each and how many are left over?’

Websites and Apps

As you will all know, technology is a great motivator for children! There are numerous websites and apps available with really good activities for young children to develop their numeracy. A couple of good ones are:

‘Learning4kids.net’ and ‘uk.ixl.com’.

Pinterest.com has a lot of super practical numeracy ideas.

There are lots of apps available, many of them free so try them out!

Meal Time Maths

Use meal times as a learning experience by talking about items of food.E.g. ‘You can take two pieces of bread today’ or, ‘You had four fish fingers and you’ve eaten one, how many are left now?’

Recognising Patterns

Children should be encouraged to look for patterns and numbers in everyday situations. E.g. when putting on socks they could notice that socks come in pairs or twos. Gloves always have five fingers, there are seven days in a week.