Maths games and activities for new entrants

I am sharing some of the games and resources I created for teaching maths to 5 year olds. The initial purpose of sharing this was to help out a friend who is doing her Bachelors of Education in Primary teaching, but sharing is caring, and hopefully some of these ideas will inspire other teachers.  These ideas are not new, and some of them I created after going on courses for BT's, and I am sure other teachers have many more ideas.  I am only sharing games that I have created myself, not downloaded from other sites. You can find literacy resources and games that I have created here.

Some great sites for maths ideas, downloads and printables are: http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/

 

Maths Tumble

These are some of the choices I gave my children on the Tumble Board. These were changed each day.  The Tumble Board lets children know what they should be doing when working independently.  They included games such as Ludo and Dominoes, card games, board games that I created, addition games, number recognition and one-one counting; and making tens.

Numbers

 I created these numbers by gluing felt numbers onto sheets of foam, both available at $2 shops.  Children use them for ordering from 1-10, playing Snap, and 1-1 counting (place numbers in order, then get that many objects (counters, bears, etc) and line them up underneath each number. I also use them for many other simple games.

Kiwis

I made these kiwis out of scrapbooking paper and laminated them.  They can be used for counting, sorting (eg by colours or patterns). My classroom had a box of plastic bugs and worms, which were used for patterning and counting.  The children played games where they would throw a dice and feed that many bugs to their kiwi.  We would play addition and subtraction games using dice and bugs and kiwis.  We would also get out 10 bugs each and then make them into patterns or group them according to colour, type, size, etc.  You could also make up Kiwi counting songs and use them at mat time. Their uses are just limited to your imagination! 

Tens Frames

My children were into animals and frogs, so I created these cards accordingly.  The cards feature frogs from 1-10.  Children pick up a card, count how many frogs and put that many counters on their Tens Frame.

This takes the above Tens Frames activity a little further. Children pick up a card, count how many frogs, and write down the number in the space provided.  They then colour in the Tens Frame accordingly.

Addition Crosswords

These are laminated, so children can use a whiteboard marker on them, then they wipe off and can be re-used.  These are Crosswords with addition problems on them.  Children fill in the missing numbers.  There are some blank ones, so children who are capable can make up their own.  I used these with intermediate aged children as an independent activity.  Some are addition problems to 10, some are addition to 20, and some are to 30. You can adapt these according to the needs of your children.

Multiplication Crosswords

Similar to above, but these are multiplication problems rather than addition.

Around The World: Numbers 0 - 10

 This is a number identification and listening game that reinforces before and after numbers to 10.  It starts with number 1.  Deal out the cards to the children - you might do it with 11 children and they have one card each, or you might do it with a small group and give them 2 cards each.

The person with Number One starts. They stand up and say: "I have 1.  Who has the number after 7?"  

The number after 7 is 8, so the person with number 8 stands up and says "I have 8.  Who has...?"

and so it continues until every number has been called.

I also made this game using 'Before Numbers' to 10.

Around The World: Numbers 10-20

This game is an extension of the above game, but using numbers 10-20.  The game pictured uses 'Before Numbers', but I also created the same game using 'After Numbers' from 10-20.

Number 10 starts in both games.

Bingo

This Bingo game can be used either to reinforce multiplication, or to reinforce number identification to 100.  The Bingo Cards consist of numbers 1 - 100.  The Calling Cards consist of a multiplication sum on one side, and on the other side is the answer.  You can either call out the sum or the answer, and children put a counter on the correct number if it is on their Bingo card.  The reason the answer is on the other side of the multiplication sum, is to provide a quick and easy reference when checking off children's answers.

 Unfortunately I can't provide links to download, as I created these a number of years ago on different computers, both of which are no longer in use, and I don't currently have the documents.  I also don't yet know how to attach documents to download.  Still getting used to blogging!  Still, I hope that this doesn't deter you from making your own, which is why I provided photos of multiple cards and things that you can copy.

Click on the link for more of my teaching resources