Maths though play
Maths through play
Play is the natural way in which children learn. It is the process through which children explore, investigate, recreate and come to understand their world. Play is an activity in which everything that a child knows and can do is practised or used to make sense of what is new.
Here are a few ways in which you can use play and talk to support your child’s understanding of mathematical concepts:
- You can help to promote mathematical language such as – heavy, light, empty, full, long, short, big, small in relevant contexts.
- Look at your home environment to develop language, especially positional words – small object in front of big object, behind, in, on.
- develop mathematical language – first, second, third, how many are blue, which is largest / smallest
- Simple activities like letting your child set the table for dinner can help develop counting skills, e.g. getting out three pieces of cutlery.
- Involve your child with household activities. After washing, allow your child to sort clothes into different colours, or different types of clothes, e.g. t-shirts and socks. This will help to develop a child’s knowledge of shapes and colours.
- Learn about money when you go shopping - recognise the numbers on the price tags, talking about the value of each coin.
- Recognising numbers out of sequence extend this by discussing that 23 isn’t 2 and 3 its two tens and three units.
- Ordering and grouping toys and objects (to 10 then 20)
Useful websites:
https://nrich.maths.org/early-years
