Numbers

• Play games that involve numbers.

• Teach numbers in proper sequence.

• Expose students to numbers written in a variety of forms and fonts.

  

• Introduce one numeral at a time.

• Use a hundreds chart so students can see how the number they are learning relates to other numbers.

• Display number lines in the classroom and on student desks.

• Read number books like Chicka Chicka 123.

• Discover the many ways in which numbers are used inside and outside your home. Take your child on a “number hunt” in your home or neighbourhood. Point out how numbers are used on the television set, the microwave, and the telephone. Spot numbers in books and newspapers. Look for numbers on signs in your neighbourhood.   Encourage your child to tell you whenever he or she discovers a new way in which numbers are used.

• Have students hang number cards on a clothesline using clothespins with corresponding numbers on them.

• Match 2 sets of magnetic numbers.

• Hand out one set of number cards and keep the other for yourself. Hold up a number card. The student with the card matching yours should hold theirs up. Give everyone a chance to hold a card up and then shuffle the cards and play again.

• Give each student a set of number cards. Have them all hold up the matching card to yours. Try making it more difficult by just saying the number (not showing a card) and having them hold up the card with that number on it.

• Play Go Fish.

• Play Concentration.

• Play BINGO.

• Have students sit in a circle and pass number cards around. Play music. When the music starts each student should say the name of the number they are holding.

• Place magnetic numbers in a bag. Ask students if they can reach in the bag and guess what number they are holding without looking.

• Blind Pick : On the sheet of paper write down letters, numbers and shapes (whatever you are learning) all over and all mixed up. Hang the paper up and cover the eyes of the children, one by one.  Get them to put their finger on the paper wherever they want, kind of like  Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Then get the child to open his or her eyes and tell you what letter, number or shape they have picked. The kids find it very entertaining and willingly cover their own eyes!

• Number Hunt: In advance, teachers discuss the number cards with the children. Next, children sit down and close their eyes, then the teacher hides number cards around the room. Children now have to find the numbers. When they find the  numbers they arrange them in to order. This activity can be played in the garden where more exciting hiding places can be found. By cutting different shapes e.g. fish for the number cards the game can be theme based. When using fish, I ask the children to feed a shark with the fish in order. The shark is a cardboard box with a toothy mouth cut in it. If you make a hole in the back of the box you can put your arm inside and grab the fish from the children like a real shark. The children really enjoy learning number concepts this way.

• Beanbag Fun! : I made a bean bag game out of a cardboard box.  First, I divided the box into 9 squares using cardboard pieces.  I put one number in each spot of the box by writing the number 1-9 on the cardboard squares..  You could also use letters or shapes. The children then toss a bean bag into one of the squares and call out the number they land on.

• Numbers Scramble: Make number necklaces (1-5). Have children wear a number necklace and sit in chairs in a circle. Call out a number. All the children wearing that number change places.

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