Helping your child at home - Mathematics
There are endless ways in which you can help your child develop their mathematical understanding at home. Here are just a few of the starting points you may find useful:
• When shopping ask them to collect 4 oranges, 5 bananas, etc.
• Ask them which is heavier, the potatoes or the carrots
• Ask them if your trolley is full or empty
• When driving along point out cars that are going fast and those that are going slow
• Ask them to keep a record of how many red cars they pass, or how many blue ones
• Ask them to look out for a tall person or a long queue or a wide road
• Play card games with your child, including Happy Families, Snap, etc.
Mathematics is not all about numbers it includes shape and measure:
• When out walking with your child ask them if they can identify a square window or a rectangular door
• Look for different shapes in the environment
• Combine 2 dimensional shapes to make pictures
• When building use the correct name for the shapes ,such as cylinder and cube
• Do some estimating such as how many pencils they can hold in their hand
See in the documents below for other activities and games to support with various strategies in mathematics.
Count On Races
In the count on game, played by an adult and a child, children learn to count on mentally. It is advised that a coin with a 1 and 2 on either side is used. Children must use a count on mental strategy when moving their counter: for example, a jump of 2 from 7 is calculated as '8,9' rather than '1,2 - I'm on 9'.
Number Bond Dice Games
For this activity children roll a dice and colour in the number of circles on the dice. Then they colour in the other part. Children then write down the two parts that the whole number is broken into. These are the Make __ games.
Quantity Bingo
This series of bingo games, played using dice, help children to recognise quantities presented as tally charts, on 10-frames, finger patterns and in dot patterns. In Match Bingo children match dice patterns to quantities. In the later versions of the game children identify one less, one more or two more than the number rolled.
Dominoes Car Park
Use the Dominoes Car Park grids to position dominoes in the correct spaces. There are grids for dominoes 0-12, 1-6 and 6-12.
Doubles Cards
The Doubles Cards show doubles up to 20 within 10-frames, helping children to visualise these number facts. The cards need to be cut out. Turn over one card at a time and the children say the double fact shown on the card.