Have you ever thought why most children hate maths?
The main reason is the fear of maths…
Why does they fear maths?
Because they don’t understand it 🙁
Why they don’t understand?
Because they think it’s complicated and not enjoyable
But believe me… Maths is the easiest subject and it’s really fun to work with numbers, provided you lay a great foundation of numbers to your kids
Recognition of numbers and understanding the process of counting will improve your child’s confidence and will help him build a great perception of mathematics.
So here are some activities to introduce numbers and counting to your child
Click on the below links to download the activity sheets
Activity sheet-Train – Numbers and sequence
Activity sheet – Turtle – Count and mask
Activity sheet – Teddy – Random number recognition
Activity sheet -Number Recognition and matching
Activity sheet – Apple plucking
Egg and bird –Introduction to numbers
Take a white A4 size paper and a yellow construction paper. Cut the white sheet in the shape of an egg shell and yellow as yolk as shown in the below image.
Cut the egg shell to half, as if the egg is hatched. Keep it aside.
Stick the yellow yolk cut out on the top part of a pop stick and draw the bird, and number of birds on it.
Write the number on the egg shell as well and stick the upper part of the egg shell on the top of the yolk
Similarly for each numbers, draw the respective number of birds and numbers on the eggs and yolks.
Note that the lower part of the shell should not stick all around, it should be open at the middle part, then only you can move it up and down.
Train and Wagons – Numbers and sequence
Provide the activity sheet -2 and the jumbled up numbers from the cutout sheet to your child and ask him to place each number in the sequence of 1 to 10 on each wagon.
You can also take out some numbers and ask him to fill missed number of the sequence.
Monkey and Banana – Counting Activity
Take printout of monkey and banana activity sheet , cut the bananas from cut out sheets and keep it aside. Get a small cardboard box and paste the monkey image on the box. Make a slit on the monkey’s mouth in such a way that anything put in his mouth will fall inside the box as shown in the below image.
Cut an A4 size paper to a ribbon strip and write numbers 1 to 4 on it. Make two slits on the hands of the monkey and place the ribbon as shown. Which you can pull and adjust to display which ever number as you wish. You can convince your child that the monkey is asking for the respective number of bananas. Provide the banana cutouts to your child and ask him to put it in to monkey’s mouth through open slit.
For example: If the monkey’s hand display’s number 4, ask your child to give 4 bananas to the monkey. That he will count 4 bananas and put it in monkey’s mouth.
After the activity, bananas will be there in side the box which can be easily taken out as shown above.
Pizza slice – Count and Match the Number
Take two yellow construction papers, cut it in round shape. One for pizza slices and other for pizza base. Fragment the shape as shown in the below image. On each slice mark 1 to 5 olives. Ask your child to count the olives on the pizza slice and match each slice to its corresponding number on the pizza base.
Number Recognition and matching
Provide number recognition activity sheet to your child, along with some 3D numbers.
Ask him to recognize the number on the activity sheet and match it with the corresponding 3D number.
Or
You can also provide him with splinter box and ask him to sort each number in respective columns.
Ice tray- Button – Counting Activity
Take an ice tray or some bowls. Place random numbers on each bowl and provide your child with some buttons, pom-poms, or anything he can count and pick. Ask him to count buttons and place in each bowl with respect to the number mentioned on it.
Teddy – Random number recognition
Provide the teddy activity sheet and the number cut outs to your child. Ask him to recognize each number on the activity sheet and mask it with the cut outs
Homemade Abacus
Take color dough in any bowl and place sticks on the color dough. Number each bowl with stickers. Take some straw and cut it in to pieces or else you can take pasta as well. Ask your child put the straw pieces on the stick as mentioned on each bowl.
Turtle – Count and mask
Provide your child with the turtle activity sheet. Ask him to count the number of dots on each section of its upper shell and mask it with corresponding number
Apple plucking – Counting Activity
Take the apple tree activity sheet and stick the apple cutouts on it with some double side stickers.
Make a dice with some cube shaped box (for instance perfume box) and cover it with a construction paper and write numbers on it.
Now, provide your child with activity sheet, dice and a bowl. Ask your child to roll the dice and whichever number turns out, ask him to pluck that many apples from the tree and keep it in the bowl.
Watch the video for detailed explanation
You can also go through
counting, how to teach numbers and counting, numbers