Boxes, tins and baskets with compartments will naturally lead to one-to-one counting and sorting.
Washing lines are great for counting objects then taking them off the line to see how many are left.
Counting
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Counting helps children understand the meaning of numbers, the relationship between numbers and quantities.
Birth to 3 years old
When babies are very tiny, they love having their toes and fingers massaged and tickled. This will draw attention to their separate toes and fingers.
They will start to investigate their own fingers as well as yours.
Activities to try at home with your baby
Pass soft scarves between your babies toes and fingers. As they get older, play finger games using their toes and fingers to count.
Count 'one, two, three' during play such as:
- swinging on a swing
- counting cups and plates at a tea party
- counting fruit together and moving the pieces of fruit one at a time as you count
- counting steps as you go upstairs
Introduce counting throughout the day. They may get numbers mixed up. This is ok as they are learning.
3 to 4 years old
Play finger games that allow children to match one object to one count such as '1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4, 5 potato, 6 potato, 7 potato more'.
This also introduces some more maths language. As well as 'more' you can also introduce 'less', 'lots' and 'a few'.
Activities to try at home with your toddler
Use finger puppets (or stickers on your fingers) to make up stories and count the characters.
Count to 10 with older children such as:
- point to 3 socks and ask them to guess how many and show 3 using their fingers
- practice counting on fingers up to 5 and see if they can show 4 fingers
- count how many sounds you can hear when you are in the park
4 to 5 years old
Count to ten then keep going!
What is the highest number you can count to? What is the most objects you can count?
Count to higher numbers when you are out and about - railings, fence posts and pavement squares.
Activities to try at home with your child
Make and play with:
- dominoes
- dots, animals, cars and make numerals to match the objects
- games using dice
Use objects to help with counting such as:
- saying how many objects are in a group without counting each one
- comparing the number of objects (stones, buttons, grapes) in 2 groups saying which has more and which has less
- using 4 real objects, taking one away to show one less than, and adding another to show one more than