You will need: • To count in your environment

When:

• Getting dressed: count fingers, toes, eyes, nose, ears, buttons, shoes, socks etc

• Playing sports/games: count catches, goals, hits of the ball, number of skittles tumbled, balls thrown in a bucket etc

• Walking inside and outside: count up and down stairs, steps taken, steps to, cracks on the concrete, leaves on the path, count the dogs you see

• In the car: count blue cars, bicycles you see etc. Notice the numbers on number plates

• Shopping: count the numbers of cans in the trolley, count the bananas in the bunch etc

• Outside: count fence posts, trees, flowers, leaves, letterboxes

• On birthdays: count candles on the cake and give one clap for the number of years

You can also:

• Sing songs or recite rhymes that use numbers

• Count big sleeps until an event such as birthday

• Spot numbers on letterboxes

• Sort and count the number of objects in a group

Did you know:

• It is important that your child becomes familiar with numbers and counting because these are foundations for numeracy at school

What your child is learning:

• Counting is a process for working out “how many”

• That the number ‘1’ represents one thing or item and so on

• Amounts can be joined, increased, decreased (addition, multiplication, subtraction).

• How numbers relate to each other