Welcome back to the "Playful Maths" series brought to you by
Together, let's make MATHS FUN!
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Last week I shared Acorn Number Balancing Game.
This weeks Playful Maths Activities use the sensory material Play dough.
In this activity we are focusing on numbers, counting & addition.
Other skills involved include fine motor, one-to-one correspondence, subitising, counting-on, number recognition etc.
Ages: 2+ (Maddie is currently 4)
(See the Handy Tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)
Materials: Playdough Flower Mat, playdough, dice, foam numbers (optional)
It was challenging to make 12 even sized petals to all fit around
Materials: Playdough Flower Mat, playdough, dice, foam numbers (optional)
I presented this activity as an Invitation to Play so that she could choose which materials and combinations to use but I explained to her that I would love to see some petals on the flower and suggested she decide on a number somehow. I also suggested that she could pop her chosen number in the centre of the flower so she'd remember how many petals to make.
Being that she is 4 years old, the number 4 is often her first choice. She opted for rummaging through the foam numbers to find the number first. This is great for number recognition.
(we used foam number stickers but I asked her to leave the back on the sticker so we could change them over easily and reuse the stickers)
Developing fine-motor skills and strengthening hand muscles pulling of the playdough and rolling it into balls.
Squishing down to make petals. We talked a lot about size while trying to make petals that were fairly even in size.
Practicing counting to check we have the correct amount of petals. Encourage counting along as they make each petal for 1:1 correspondence.
We rolled 2 dice together to encourage simple addition and counting-on. I encouraged her to subitise the larger number and then count on from there.
(With the two 6's, you'd encourage them to point to the first die, say "6" and then point to the other die and count on "7, 8, 9..etc" instead of counting from 1 through to 12)
When something is a little challenging, this is a good time for you to get all excited about it to help engage and excite the child too. Challenges can be fun and interesting but many children see challenges as something that's "too hard" or that they "can't do" just because they have to work at it a little bit. This can be a child first response so you just need to help demonstrate the right attitude and way to go about it. Offer all the help they need and make it fun! eg "Ooooh, 12! What a big number. Wow! How are we going to fit them all around? I wonder what size we'll have to make them? What do you think?" etc
Well done. You did it! (Offer tons of encouragement). Can you make the number 12 from the foam numbers? We used this to work on teen numbers and as 11 and 12 can be tricky ones for children, the more times they can practice, the better.
Throw the dice!
"Look, I'm putting the numbers on!" Adding corresponding foam numbers to petals.
Provide the materials and the children will find their own way to use them. Ways you mightn't have thought of.
The number 6
Yes, let's get creative!
Playdough Mats are great to use with children. They can form the basis of a whole lot of different creative and learning experiences and they're easy to make and swap and change around.
I must admit that I did try to get all fancy and whip one up digitally for you but I'm afraid my skills were rather lacking so I ended up just sketching one by hand to use instead. You're welcome to a copy if you'd like one. Just click the picture to go to the google drive and then print from there or save to your own computer. Once printed I recommend laminating it like we did to make it reusable.
Handy Tips
- Simplify this activity by allowing your child to create free petals for the flower and then encourage them to count how many they've made. You can slowly introduce one die or some magnetic numbers etc
- Extend this activity by:
- Encouraging the use of the 2 dice together for addition practice.
- Add a 3rd dice for an added challenge
- practice simple subtraction by taking away the smaller number from the larger number.
- Using a number die to encourage number recognition
- Have children write the number or even simple number sentences on the mat with a dry erase marker. These can be wiped off a laminated mat easily.
- Mix it up with different coloured playdough and add in extra creative materials such as sequins and craft sticks and beads
- Change the activity by using the mat with dry erase markers instead of playdough
- Use the mathematical language that goes naturally with this activity, such as, "how many," "size," "big," "small," "long," short," etc
- Did you see our Playful Maths with Natural Materials? Turns out they were very popular so if you haven't seen them, click the pictures below to check them out.
You can see the rest of our Playful Maths here. So far we've covered a range of easily accessible materials, many of which were recycled or came from nature.
Don't forget to join us next week where we're bringing you more Playful Maths activities.
Happy playing,
Debs :)
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