Nursery Transport Numeracy Ideas
Counting Warm Up Games
Count the BeadsUsing beads/pasta and lace/wool, ask an adult to call out a number 1-10. Make a necklace by threading that number of beads onto the lace, counting as you go. When you've finished, remember to count them again, putting your finger on each bead only once!
(Parents: Encourage left to right counting.) |
Counting QuantitiesClick the button below for 'Snail Trail.' Ask an adult to call out a number 1-6.
Put your finger on the rock that you think holds that many snails. Count them to make sure, putting your finger on each snail only once! Now, can you find another rock that holds the same amount of snails? You can also play this game by printing out 2 copies and taking it turns to roll a dice, putting a counter/coin on the rock that holds that many snails. |
Counting Forwards and BackwardsAsk an adult to call out a number 1-10. See if you can count FORWARDS from that number, all the way to 10!
If you'd like an extra challenge, see if you can count BACKWARDS from the same number, all the way to 1! This is a tricky task, so make sure you practice this one every day! You can build it up from numbers 1-5 to numbers 1-10 and add the action of jumping forwards/backwards to make it easier. (Parents: This game is an excellent precursor for Early Addition in Year 1) |
Week 5 - 18/05/20 - Shapes for a Purpose & Sorting
Last week, we focused on identifying the shape of different objects in our home environments and began to think about how different shapes are best used for different purposes.
This week, we are going to think a little further about using shapes for a purpose. These thinking tasks, though difficult at first, are really important for developing your child's logical thinking and mathematical reasoning skills. For the 'Which Shape Works Best?' activity this week, we have included some probing questions to encourage your child to reason and think about the answer they have given. To develop mathematical reasoning and thinking skills further, we have also included some shape sorting activities this week, where your child will sort things that belong to one criteria or group, e.g. all the same colour, all the same shape or things that roll. Don't forget to start your numeracy time with some Counting Warm Up Games, to focus for the activity ahead! These games can be repeated daily, as it builds fluency and confidence with counting. |
Week 5 - Which Shape Works Best?
Click the button to access the powerpoint for this activity. Ask your child the questions and give directions as they appear on the slides. This is a 'thinking and talking' activity rather than a hands-on activity, but the ideas can be tested at home using real objects. Some of the items could be made using more than one shape, so keep that in mind!
Try not to correct your child if they, for example, suggest using a circular lid for a square box. It's more important that they take time to think about their answer, rather than get it right. Instead, probe a little further to find out why your child thinks so and then test it out using real items. Discuss what might happen if there was a delicious fresh cake in the box and the lid didn't fit properly on the box! |
Week 5 - Postman Pat's Parcel Sort
Week 5 - Shape Sorting
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This week we're putting on our thinking caps to think about how we could sort things in different ways! Click to watch the video as an introduction before starting the activity below.
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Once you've watched the video, click the button below to access and print the shape sorting activity. If you don't have a printer, just draw out outlines of the shapes using the grid as a guide for colour, shape and size. Cut out the shape cards.
To play this game, spread the shape cards out on a table (facing up) and ask your child to mix them up. Explain to your child that there are lots of different ways that we can sort these cards (just like the cars in the video) and that they must listen carefully to the way you're asking them to sort the shapes. Ask your child to sort them in the following ways, one category at a time, e.g. let them put all the red things together first, before asking them to sort for blue.
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* Please keep the Shape Sorting cards safe when you have finished with them, as we'll be using them again for a different activity next week!
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Week 5 - Shape Roads
Make some shape roads by sticking down black tape on your carpet/floor or by cutting them out of black paper. (If you make the shapes out of sandpaper, it makes it into a nice sensory activity as the shapes mimic the roughness of a real road!) Your child will love tracing the shapes with their toy cars/vehicles! To extend this task further, ask your child to name all of the shapes and discuss if it is easier or more difficult to get the car around a square or around the circle. Encourage them to think about which shape would work best as a roundabout or as a road around a building. Ask them to see how many cars they can fit on each shape and encourage them to count them carefully, putting their finger on each car only once (use a marker for the first car counted). Finally, see if they can sort out their cars according to colour, by putting all of the yellow cars on the circle, all of the red cars on the square, etc.
Week 5 - Does it roll or does it stack?
Ask your child to help you to collect up a box of household things that either roll or stack. Make sure you hunt in your recycling bin (think toilet roll holders and boxes!) and have a look at the picture for more inspiration! See if your child can spot and name the shapes they see on the items.
To make this task really clear for your child, put one sorting card on each chair or on either side of the table. (Click the button below for the sorting cards, or just make your own.) Ask your child to sort out the items into things that 'Roll' and things that 'Don't Roll' (pointing to the relevant pictures). Help your child at first, and then see if they can do it on their own! Test out the items once everything has been sorted and put any stray items onto the right side. Repeat the game, this time, asking your child to sort out the items into things that 'Stack' and things that 'Don't Stack.' You could extend this activity by seeing if your child can make a collection out of the things that roll AND stack, e.g. a pringles box. |
Week 6 - 25/05/20 - Sorting for 1 and 2 Criteria
This week, we are going to build on the skill of sorting items into 1 criteria or group (e.g. sorting shapes by colour) and work towards sorting items that fall into 2 criteria/groups (e.g. sorting shapes by colour and type).
Last week's sorting activities were adult-led and focused on asking the child to sort collections of items in very specific ways, e.g. 'Put the red things together.' This week, we want to encourage the children to think independently about ways that they could sort items, asking key questions about the process as they sort.
This can be a really difficult task for children, as they have to first concentrate on 1 criteria exclusively and apply it to the whole collection of items, and then shift their concentration to a second criteria. Please follow the activities in the order they appear, as each one builds on the previous activity.
We'd love your feedback about how your child gets on with the sorting activities this week, as it will help us to plan for next week! Please see the survey at the end, or just send a quick message on seesaw.
Last week's sorting activities were adult-led and focused on asking the child to sort collections of items in very specific ways, e.g. 'Put the red things together.' This week, we want to encourage the children to think independently about ways that they could sort items, asking key questions about the process as they sort.
This can be a really difficult task for children, as they have to first concentrate on 1 criteria exclusively and apply it to the whole collection of items, and then shift their concentration to a second criteria. Please follow the activities in the order they appear, as each one builds on the previous activity.
We'd love your feedback about how your child gets on with the sorting activities this week, as it will help us to plan for next week! Please see the survey at the end, or just send a quick message on seesaw.
Try to incorporate sorting into your daily life, by asking your child to help with simple household chores. Here are some ideas:
Remember to revisit our Counting Warm Up Games daily, either from last week or previous weeks!
- Sorting and putting away silverware – forks, knives and spoons.
- Sorting laundry away into the right drawers.
- Sorting socks into pairs.
- Sorting a bag of mixed veggies.
- Sorting a mixture of crayons and colouring pencils into separate sets.
- Sorting toys into boxes by type.
Remember to revisit our Counting Warm Up Games daily, either from last week or previous weeks!
Week 6 - Sorting Shapes
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First, watch the video as an introduction to sorting the same group in different ways.
Click on the 'Sorting Shapes' button to access and cut out ONLY the big shapes on Pages 1 & 2 (you may have saved these from last week, or you could draw the shape outlines!) Mix the cards up and spread them out. Use the following questions to prompt your child to tell you about their reasoning: 'Look at our collection of shapes. Can you make a set with the shapes?' Child puts all red shapes together. 'Well done! Why do they go together? Now can you make a set with a different colour?' Once the shapes have been sorted by colour, jumble up the collection and ask if there's any other way the shapes can be sorted. (e.g. by type, putting all the triangles together.) Obviously, your child may choose to sort the other way around - by type first, then by colour - but the same principle applies. If your child is finding it difficult to think of a different way to sort the cards, demonstrate by putting two triangles together. Ask them why you put them together and if there are any others that could be added to the collection. If your child completes this activity easily, you could then add the small shapes (on Pages 3 & 4) to the collection to see if they can find a third way to sort the shapes (by size). Make sure they've succeeded in sorting 2 different ways before sorting them 3 different ways! |
Week 6 - Sorting Vehicles
Print and lay out the land, air and water pictures side by side. (Alternatively, draw a simple symbol for each on 3 separate pages.) Cut out the types of vehicles and mix them up. (you could also use real toys or drawn outlines).
Ask your child:
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If you have real toy vehicles at home, you could make this into a hands on sorting activity instead, by filling three tubs - one with water, one with cotton wool (for air) and one with black beans or small stones (for land). Explain what each tub represents and ask your child to sort out their transport toys.
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Week 6 - Sorting Pompoms/Playdough
Put a collection of pompoms or play dough balls (in 2 colours) into a bowl. Make sure there are only 2 sizes (big and small) and 2 colours (whichever you have!) Draw big and small circles on a sheet of paper in matching colours and sizes.
Ask your child to sort out the pompoms/play dough balls by putting them in the right place on the piece of paper. For this task, your child will have think about 2 criteria at once (the colour of the pompom and the size of the pompom) to sort for these 2 criteria. This is a very tricky task! When your child is finished, point to a few different pompoms and ask 'Why did you choose to put this one here?' to encourage your child to reason out their choices: 'Because it's big and green.' |
Week 6 - The Missing Picture
Click on the button below to access and cut out the pictures (or draw outlines in matching colours). Arrange the pictures on a blank grid (Page 2), lined up as shown in the picture. The order and placement of the pictures will help your child to remember which picture has been taken away.
Ask your child to close their eyes as you take away one of the pictures. Ask them to open their eyes and describe which picture is missing. Encourage your child to describe the missing picture using 2 criteria, e.g. 'The red car is missing' rather than 'The car is missing'. If you have happen to have 3 different transport toys in 3 colours, feel free to use them instead to recreate this game! |
Week 7 - 01/06/20 - Sorting for 2 Criteria
Last week, we encouraged the children to think independently about how they could sort items for 1 property first, and then for a second property. This week, we’ll build on that skill by encouraging the children to sort for 2 properties at the same time, e.g. putting all the red circles together (sorting for colour and shape). Your child may find it quite difficult to look for 2 properties at the same time. Model the activities first, asking yourself questions out loud to encourage your child to self-question too. ‘Is it red? Is it a circle? Then it belongs.’
We’ll mostly use a simple Venn Diagram to sort items this week and to embed the skill. A simple Venn Diagram is made by using a hula hoop or by drawing a big circle on a piece of paper. When sorting with a simple Venn Diagram, items that have 2 specific properties go in the middle of the circle, (e.g. round red shapes) and any other items go outside the circle (e.g. other coloured shapes or red shapes with straight lines).
We’ll mostly use a simple Venn Diagram to sort items this week and to embed the skill. A simple Venn Diagram is made by using a hula hoop or by drawing a big circle on a piece of paper. When sorting with a simple Venn Diagram, items that have 2 specific properties go in the middle of the circle, (e.g. round red shapes) and any other items go outside the circle (e.g. other coloured shapes or red shapes with straight lines).
This week, we’ll also revise some number recognition and teach the children what to call a ‘combined set,’ when all of the sorted items have been put back together again, i.e. a set of triangles and a set of circles put together makes a set of shapes. The skill of knowing what a combined set is called is a really useful building block when learning how to add.
Week 7 - Combining Sets
Another important skill for children to learn when sorting is to learn what the set would be called if all the similar items were put together into a combined set. For example, if the children sort bears into a set of Mummy Bears, Daddy Bears and Baby Bears, do they know what the set is called when all the sets are put together? (A set of bears)
Try the following activity out. Ask your child to sort out leaves (collected during daily exercise) into piles; it could be a set of skinny leaves, big leaves and small leaves. Ask them to describe each set (e.g. 'This set of skinny leaves.'). Pull all of the sets together into a big pile and ask, 'When we put all of these sets together, what would this big set be called?' (A set of leaves)
Repeat the activity with a range of household items. Here are some ideas:
Try the following activity out. Ask your child to sort out leaves (collected during daily exercise) into piles; it could be a set of skinny leaves, big leaves and small leaves. Ask them to describe each set (e.g. 'This set of skinny leaves.'). Pull all of the sets together into a big pile and ask, 'When we put all of these sets together, what would this big set be called?' (A set of leaves)
Repeat the activity with a range of household items. Here are some ideas:
- Wild flowers (collected during daily exercise)
- Cutlery
- Patterned/coloured socks
- Crayons
- Construction bricks
- Cups (different sizes/colours)
- Toys
Week 7 - The Missing Piece
Remember ‘The Missing Picture’ game we played last week? This week, create your own version of this game using real things that you have around your house by laying the items out on the grid outline. Try to stick to just 3 colours and 3 different items, and lay them out as last week, e.g. 3 crayons in a vertical row. Make sure you have one in each colour that you plan to use and that the colours on your grid match, e.g. green fork, green crayon, green bottle cap. Don’t worry if the items are different sizes, as that will add a 3rd property to the game, building on last week’s 2 properties. Model using 2 or 3 descriptors and then encourage your child to do the same on their turn, e.g. ‘The big (size) green (colour) crayon (type) is missing!’
Here's some examples of items that you could use, in 3 different colours:
Once you’ve played this game through a few times, and you feel that your child is easily identifying what’s missing, you could make this game more challenging by mixing the items up on the grid and playing again.
Here's some examples of items that you could use, in 3 different colours:
- 3 crayons
- 3 bottle tops
- 3 bowls
- 3 pencils
- 3 plastic forks
- 3 balls of play dough
- 3 pompoms
- 3 constructions bricks
Once you’ve played this game through a few times, and you feel that your child is easily identifying what’s missing, you could make this game more challenging by mixing the items up on the grid and playing again.
Week 7 - Sweetie Sort Game
Download and cut out the sweets and game cards (or make your own). Scatter the sweets around the Venn Diagram (hula hoop or big circle drawn on a page). Stack the game cards and turn them over. Take it in turns to pick up a card that tells you what type of sweet you are looking for. Put all of the sweets that have those attributes into the middle of your Venn Diagram. Adult starts, so that you can model how the game is played, showing the card to your child and thinking aloud: ‘Are there spots on this sweet? Is it orange? I wonder should I put it inside or outside the circle?’
Once the game is established, see if the other player can guess what was on the card without seeing the card, e.g. ‘I think you were looking for orange sweets with spots!’ If the other person gets it right, they get to keep your card. The person with the most cards at the end wins. |
Week 7 - Food Sort
You could create your own Venn Diagram ‘Food Sorting Game’ at home by choosing one of the following collections (using hula hoop or big circle drawn on a page). The properties are in bold. Once your child has sorted the collection in the way you’ve asked, ask them what you could call that set. They may need your help with this at first! ‘This is a set of red and green fruit.’ Once your child has sorted the items in all of the suggested ways, pull the collection/set together in the middle of the Venn Diagram and ask your child what the set is called when they are all put together, e.g. ‘This is a set of fruit.’
Collection 1: Fruit
Here’s a few ways you could sort out a fruit bowl (lemon, banana, red & green mango or apple, grapes or blueberries) looking for 2 properties
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Collection 2: Pasta
Here’s a few ways you could sort out a bowl of mixed pasta (fusilli, penne, rigatoni, tagliatelle balls, spaghetti)looking for 2 properties:
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Collection 3: Quality Street
Here’s a few ways you could sort out a box of Quality Street looking for 2 properties:
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Week 7 - Water Transport Hunt
Click the button to print 2 copies of the Water Transport Hunt Game (or draw your own outlines). Hold onto 1 copy as a master copy, and cut up the pictures on the other copy to hide around the house or garden. Make sure your child is familiar with the names of each mode of transport before starting the game. Your child will be looking for 2 properties - the type of transport and the number that's on it. This game will test your child’s number recognition! Here are some examples of the instructions you will call:
When your child returns with the right card, ask them to match it to the corresponding type of transport on the master copy. Keeping going until the master copy is full. To extend the activity, you could mix up all the cards and ask your child to sort them for type, and when they've finished, sort them into number sets. For a further challenge, ask your child to see how many times they can order the numbers 1-5 using the pictures (regardless of transport types) before they run out of numbers! |