Count and figure it out together
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Young children enjoy physical activities like jumping and throwing. Your child will enjoy playing games outside. Adult sport involves counting, timing, and scoring. Young children's games can too. You can count when you go downstairs or as your child jumps. Your child can try to beat her own record when she skips, and catches a ball. You can keep scores when you aim or hit a ball.

 outdoor games

count as you jump

Count as you jump

See how far you can count in time as you jump, skip, march, swing on swings.

Counting with a regular beat makes it easier and more fun.

Count odds and evens by hopping on one foot and then jumping on two, like in hopscotch.

Whisper odd numbers and shout even numbers, 'one, two! three, four!, five...'

Slap knees and clap hands behind your back, or above your head, counting odds and
evens again. Invent some extra actions of your own.

Count from 1 as you jump. When you get to 5 and 10 and 15, turn right round.


1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (turn round)
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (turn round).


You can try other things:

  • count backwards

  • count in tens

  • count in tens, starting from 20 or 100

  • count in hundreds or thousands or millions!

Beat your record

  • How many times can you hop without putting your foot down?

  • How many times can you bounce and catch without dropping the ball?

  • How many times can you throw and catch? Use beanbags or small cushions to make it easier for young children.

  • How many times can you skip? Your child can do this with a rope on his own, or tie a rope to a tree and turn it for him

 Image of child

Just a minute

time a minute on a watch

Time a minute on a watch. Use an egg timer for three minutes.
How many jumps, hops or skips can you do in one minute? In three minutes?

You can score on sheets of old paper.

Useful questions to ask

  • Can you do more than ten?
    twenty?
    a hundred?

  • You did 20 last time.
    How many do you think you will do next time?

skittles

Skittles and bottles

See how many skittles, or plastic bottles you can knock over. Record the score.

Useful questions to ask

  • How many did you knock over?

  • How many are left? How will you show that?

  • How many do you think you will knock down next?

Encourage your child to score in her own way. She can draw marks for the number, and then you can write the numbers for her. Have numbers on cards for her to choose from. This helps her to learn the written number. She may not want or be able to write yet. She can find the right number to press on a calculator.

Other things you can do

  • How many of 5 balls or stones can you get in the box?

  • How many goals can you score with a football?

  • How many times can you hit the ball with the bat?

Pebbles in the pond

pebbles

Put some water in a bucket. Or you can draw a circle on the ground for the pond.

Use five pebbles.

Your child can stand on a spot away from the 'pond'. He can try and throw the pebbles one at a time into the 'pond'.

Count with him as he throws. He can count how many pebbles he got into the pond and how many fell outside.

  • How many pebbles did you throw in?

  • How many are out of the pond?

  • Is it the same as last time?

  • How many do you think you will get in this time? And how many do you think will be left outside?
    (This is a harder question.)

You can score how many are in the pond and how many outside.

You can show him how to write 0 (zero).

Number hunt

Hide some numbers written on pieces of paper or cards in an outdoor area. You can draw the right number of dots or circles to show the meaning of the number.

Chant,

'We're going on a number hunt,
we're not scared,
we're not scared!'

See how many numbers you can find and if you can read them. See if you can find all the numbers in order
or reverse order. Use some large numbers like a million as well as numbers to 10.

Give target numbers.

'Kavita's going on a number hunt,
she's not scared,
she's not scared.
She's going to hunt for number 5!'

For several children one can hide the numbers while the others hide their eyes.

Throw a dice

Make a big dice out of a cube shaped cardboard box. Some tissue boxes, or teabag boxes are this shape. Throw the dice and do that many hops, or jumps or other actions. If you have paving stones, you can jump on that number of paving stones. You can pick a card from a pack of playing cards instead of using a dice.

Hopscotch

You can chalk numbers on paving stones to make a hopscotch pattern.

You can draw a clockface of large numbers or circles with numbers written on them. Your child can throw the dice and jump on to the matching number.

Draw a track with numbers. Throw a stone or pebble to a number. Jump to that number, saying the numbers as you go.

 hopscotch

Numbered boxesnumbered pots


You can use boxes, plant pots, old buckets, tyres or chalked circles. Paint a number on each container and mix them up so they go, say, 2, 5, 3, 4, 1. The aim of the game is to throw a ball or stone into the boxes in the right order, starting with number 1, then number 2, and so on.

Arrange the boxes in order, so box 2 is further away than box 1, and so on. This is harder. Write up the numbers your child gets, or let them try to do this.

items

What will your child be learning?

  • Learning to say numbers in the right order

  • Counting to high numbers
    Forwards and backwards

  • Counting in twos or fives or tens
    This will help your child get ready for learning tables.

  • Counting actions
    Counting the number of skips helps your child to learn that the last number you say is the number for the whole lot of skips. This is quite a hard idea.

  • Adding numbers
    Your child learns that six and four make ten, and five and five make ten, when they try and knock down ten skittles. She learns that 3 and 2 make 5, and 1 and 4 make 5, when she tries to throw five pebbles in the bucket.

  • Reading and writing numbers
    Your child can make marks for each pebble that goes in the box. This helps him learn about symbols.

see saw

Later on he can learn how to write the numbers. Or you can write the number for him. Writing numbers is much harder.

If you do it for him, your child will want to have a go. It is much easier to write large with chalk, than to do it with a small pencil. You can ask him to find the number on a calculator or on a watch.

Resources

  • Things to throw - balls, old cushions

  • Things to aim at - boxes

  • Dice - cube shaped box, marked with numbers

  • Chalk or pen and paper

 

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