This guest post from Shelley is packed full of great ideas for using our printable number resources for some fun hands-on maths activities with the kids. These are the pages used in the activities below:
- Fruit and Vegetable Counting Playdough Mats
- Monster Number Playdough Mats 0 to 10
- Number Playdough Mats 0 to 9
- Teddy Numbers
- All our Numbers to 10
Five ideas for using our numbers to 10 printables
By Shelley
I am a firm believer in fun hands-on maths activities. My kids always remember a lot more when they get to use their hands and create something. So when my kids were learning their numbers we did lots of playdough activities, crafts, activities where they got to feel the shape of the numbers and pick up and move objects around.
Even though my kids have already learnt their numbers I could not resist going through all the new number resources on Activity Village and I love them. So these are just a few of my absolute favourites. And yes my youngest did actually have a go at using some of the playdough mats – he just couldn’t resist trying them out once I had printed out a few pages! He gives them a thumbs up!
Feeling the Numbers!
I LOVE numbered playdough mats – any learning activity that includes playdough is always a win in our household. The black and white numbered vegetable mats are perfect for counting. The kids can use their playdough to create the shape of the numbers as well as the correct number of vegetables on the mats.
Using our vegetable counting playdough mat for the number 3
And don’t forget you can also use white board marker pens on your playdough mats. Instead of laminating our mats I placed them inside write and wipe pockets.
Using a whiteboard marker and a write and wipe pocket
Monster Mats with Ten Frames
As much as I love the idea of the black and white vegetable playdough mats I also love the super cute monster playdough mats. These were my son’s favourite too. I think it is a brilliant idea to introduce a basic ten frame so the kids get use to seeing numbers represented in this way.
Monster number playdough mats in use!
Number Collages
I really believe that the more kids use their hands to create the numbers the more the shapes stick. So I love the idea of number collages. Using the black and white plain number playdough mats as a template the kids can use any and all craft goodies to create their numbers. There are many materials that you could use, including plenty that you might have around the house, like pasta, dried beans, tissue paper, beads, buttons, pom-poms, feathers etc.
Number playdough mats used for number collage
Multi-Purpose Teddy Bears
I am a sucker for printouts which I know I am going to be able to use over and over again (and it is worth printing them on card if you can). The Numbered Teddy Bears are one of those. The kids can use the bears in many ways. Here are some ideas:
- to practise building a timeline (place the teddy bears in order from smallest number to biggest number)
- for matching the bears to the correct number of objects (anything goes with this – beads, buttons, dried beans, snap cubes, pom-poms whatever is available)
- matching magnetic numbers to the correct number on the teddy bear
- if you have a laminator the kids can always use their whiteboard marker pens to trace over the numbers on the bears.
Numbered teddy bears matched to dried butter beans
And don’t throw them away because later on you can use also use these bears to create some basic addition sums!
Using Number Lines
We have a few number lines printed out and scattered around the house. They are a great visual tool for kids generally. A popular way of teaching addition and subtraction is to use number lines, getting the kids to jump their fingers forwards and backwards.
When my kids were younger I had a couple of laminated number lines stashed in their sensory tubs. The kids would often dig in a sensory tub and collect the correct number of beans or buttons out of the sensory tubs to line up alongside the number lines.
This is a guest post from Shelly. Shelly is a home educating parent of two children aged 6 and 9. She blogs at ofamily learning together where she shares ideas on the different learning activities that they do including lots of hand-on Maths, arts and crafts and anything else that is part of their home educating lifestyle.
You can find more guest posts by Shelly, and a list of all our guest posts, here.
