Learn with Play at Home: Counting & Number Recognition with Paper Tubes. Playful Maths

Welcome back to the "Playful Maths" weekly series brought to you by

Learn with Play at home and The Imagination Tree

Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

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Last week we brought you 2 more great maths activities using egg cartons.

This week and next we'll be using Paper Tubes.

Today's activity from us focuses on "Counting and Number Recognition"

This activity also includes aspects of one-to-one correspondence and a little bit of problem solving, learning shapes, colours and brainstorming.

Ages: 2+

(M has just turned 4. See the bottom for handy tips to Extend or Simplify to meet your child's needs)

Materials: Paint, Paper Tube, Paper, Marker

Before presenting the activity I cut the pieces of paper in half and wrote a number at the top of each page.

I did the numbers 1-20

(choose your numbers according to what the child needs to work on)

The presented activity.

(I put the paint on a sponge to avoid having too much paint to print with)

Have your child read the number and then print the corresponding number of circles using the paper tube.

I noticed a form of 1:1 correspondence as she had to count aloud each time she stamped to get the correct amount.

As the numbers got higher, I found that sometimes she lost count and was forced to re-count and then count-on to figure out the remaining amount of stamps needed.

Allow your pages to dry.

At this point it's up to you to decide what you want to do with the pages.

Read on to see what we did with them the following day.

First I folded a piece of thick paper around the pages and stapled together to make a book.

She loved that her pictures were now a book and eagerly read the pages, counting the circles as she went.

We then talk about circles and about how we could turn the circles into objects in the book.

We brainstormed a list of ideas.

I gave her the book and some coloured pencils. She also wanted our list of ideas for inspiration.

Working one page at a time, we talked about the number and what she could turn the circles into.

She then got to work decorating and adding details to the circles.

1 was her of course. There's only 1 Maddie! haha

(The number 4 page turned into our 4 family members, she insisted on 19 ladybird so that one took a while. Each page was something different and it's so much more meaningful to her as a counting book because she made it herself. She has ownership over the work and understands what it means and represents. It doesn't matter that it doesn't look like a work of art)

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by starting with numbers 1-3. Include higher numbers up to 10 as they are able.

- You can Extend this activity in many ways:

Have the child write the numbers on the pages themselves.
Focus on the teen numbers and have children stamp 10 times in one colour. Then have the child work out how many more to make the teen number eg 13 is 10 and 3; 19 is 10 and 9 and then stamp the extra amount in a different colour
What different patterns and designs can they come up with using the paper tube to still display the corresponding number?
If you make a book, have the children practice their number writing on the opposite page and also make and design a front cover

- Mix it up by using the pictures to make a wall mural or playroom/classroom display, hanging display etc. Mount onto coloured card or press the edges of the paper tubes in to make different shapes for printing.

- For grouping, use a different coloured paint for each small group and a fresh tube for each colour. This will help them with subitising as well.

- To learn new skills and to consolidate their understanding, children need to experience opportunities to practice these same skills over and over again.

- Playful Maths. Below are the Egg Carton Activities from both Learn with Play at home and The Imagination Tree
(click on the pictures to go to the posts)