Fun Maths at Home [Reception / Infants] http://www.wirral-mbc.gov.uk/maths/maths-homework/index.asp

Number rhymes and counting games

 ‘I’m no good at maths’, ‘I hated maths at school’ and ‘I panic when anyone asks me a mathematical question’. Are you one of those people who have bad memories of your maths lessons? Don’t let it happen to your child. This guide looks at ways of making maths fun and helping your child to learn through number rhymes, games and everyday activities. (You will see that we have used ‘she’ for children – this is just to make it easier to read.)

How can number rhymes and counting games help my child?

They give her a chance to

• learn number names and say them from the lowest number up to the highest and from the highest down to the lowest

• begin to understand addition and subtraction.

It isn’t just children’s mathematical understanding that is being developed, counting games and number rhymes also help to improve your child’s

• listening skills

• language skills (by giving her the chance to have fun playing with words and sounds)

• physical skills (when rhymes and games use fingers, hands, feet and other body parts)

• social skills (working with others, sharing and taking part).

Four favourite number rhymes to use with your child

Here is the beehive. Where are the bees?

Hiding away where nobody sees.

Soon they come creeping out of the hive,

One, two, three, four, five. BUZZ.

This is a simple first rhyme to help learn the order and names of numbers up to five. It only needs hands to make the shape of the beehive and fingers for the bees, but remember for very young children its quite difficult to say the words and use the right number of fingers at the same time.

An elephant went out to play

Upon a spider’s web one day.

He found it such tremendous fun

He called another elephant to come.

Two elephants went out to play

Upon a spider’s web one day, etc.

Any number of elephants can be called to join in. This is a good game for a party. It helps counting skills and shows that counting is adding one more each time.

Five little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log eating some most delicious bugs.

Yum yum.

One jumped into the pool where it was so nice and cool

Then there were four little speckled frogs.

Glug glug.

Four little speckled frogs, etc.

Children love the sound of the words in this rhyme. Any number of frogs can be used. It helps children to begin to understand how to take one away each time. You can use maths words, such as ‘one less’, ‘fewer’, ‘take away’ and ‘how many left’. Children can make and draw the props, cutting out a pond from shiny paper, finding a log and making dough or plasticine models of the frogs.

Ten fat sausages sitting in a pan,

One went ‘POP’ and another went ‘BANG’.

Eight fat sausages sitting in a pan, etc.

This gets children to do the more difficult activity of counting backwards in twos and helps them to understand the idea of subtraction. Fingers can be used, but children can easily make their own props for this with playdough or plasticine.

Some of the best number rhymes will be the ones that you and your child make up together. Try using a well-known one, such as Ten Green Bottles, and make up your own words to suit a particular situation. It helps if you can involve the child in some kind of activity and use props so that your child can see and count real objects.

Everyday activities which can involve having fun with numbers

• Spotting numbers when going for a walk – house numbers, car numbers, numbers on signs and advertisements, and numbers in shops. Before you leave the house, have some guessing games, for example ‘How many dogs do you think we will see today?’ or ‘How many blue cars?’.

• Counting and sorting when going shopping and putting shopping away. For example ‘How many apples did we buy, have we got one for everyone in the family?’ and ‘Can you fetch me three bananas?’.

• Sorting and counting when doing the washing. ‘How many socks are there?’ ‘Can you put them into pairs?’ Counting out pegs, and counting and sorting how many clothes belong to different family members, how many are white, how many have stripes, etc.

• Measuring, sorting and counting when doing the cooking. Counting spoonfuls and sharing out food. ‘Do we have enough cakes for everyone? ‘Will everyone have the same number?’ ‘Do we need more?’

• Laying the table. ‘How many people are there?’ ‘How many utensils do we need?’ ‘Is there a place for each person?’

You can make up rhymes for many of these activities and sing them to your favourite tunes. Have a go. You will enjoy it as much as your child!

A good attitude to maths starts early and begins with making maths fun, doing maths in everyday life and having the chance to experiment with numbers and sums.