Count stairs, letter boxes, trucks etc as opportunities arise.
Put out the number of knives needed for dinner and ask your child to get the same number of forks and spoons.
Ask your child to get everyone a cup for afternoon tea.
Ask questions like “If Grandma comes to stay for the weekend, how many people will there be?” “If Daddy leaves the table, how many people will there be?”
Talk about numbers as they play e.g. the number of blocks they are using to build their tower or the number of wheels on their car.
Read stories that have a number focus e.g. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Ask your child to count and sort larger numbers of items.
Ask questions like “How many muesli bars do I have if there are three packets of muesli bars that have ten in each and four single muesli bars?”
Talk about larger numbers up to 100 as they occur (e.g. House numbers on long streets).
Number names:
Ask your child to tell you what the numbers on letterboxes, number plates on cars or pages in a book are.
Look for examples of number names on signs and environmental print.
Collect numbers from newspapers and magazines.
Read stories that contain numbers and ask your child to find the number name or numeral on the page.
Talk about two-digit numbers whenever opportunities arise. Ask questions such as “Which is bigger/smaller/the same/different?”
Take note of larger numbers as they occur (e.g. house numbers, page numbers in books). Encourage your child to read the numbers and talk about other ways they could have been written.
Counting in 2s and 5s:
Count stairs or objects in twos whenever opportunities arise.
Put out the number of knives and forks needed for dinner and ask your child to count them in sets of two.
Ask your child to make pairs of the socks as they come out of the washing basket and count them in twos.
Talk about numbers as they play e.g. the number of blocks they are using to build their tower or the number of wheels on their car.
Count the number of wheels on the trucks that go by.
