Good maths game for reception level?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

My dd says that they 'do sums at school and I always get everything wrong'. At a friend's house I saw a game called Sum Swamp, which she enjoyed playing. What do other parents and teachers think of this? Have you any other tips for supporting reception number work? Obviously, counting in real life, weighing things, etc, but that is less useful than I expected.

Woodlands Junior School has an excellent website with maths games etc.

Ah, Reception. Well, ignore my post then, lol.

Hi
We have a game called "shut the box" that I have found very good with both dc. I think it is actually an old pub game. It is a rack of tiles numbered 1 to 9 and 2 dice.
The object of the game is to put all the tiles down and this is done by throwing the dice, adding up the total and then working out which tiles will equal that amount.
Dd is now in year 1 and is able to play her turn without any input.
It is on Amazon.

Good old fashioned board games, like monopoly, snakes and ladders, and many of the Orchard Games board games are great. Pop to the shops etc. Just playing with numbers is fun.

Do you mean playing snakes and ladders etc with two dice and adding them? Off to look at shut the box, too.

DD played a card game at a friends which had numbers colours and basic shapes.

can't remember what it is called so if anyone knows..... I want to get it and it seems the right sort of thing the OP is after

Shut the box looks great ... but too complex for now. Turns out that DD is fine for Reception, vis-a-vis number skills and has probably been trying year 2 problems (mixed-age class). Would still like ideas, though.

the lily pad game! We cut out some leaf shapes, like lily pads. Then I got some images of frogs, laminated, and cut out. Laminated the leaves too.

Started with one dice. Set the timer, and you each take it in turns to throw the dice. So son might throw a five - put five frogs on the lilypad. Then on his next go it could be a 2. So how many to take off to make two? And so forth. We'd do this for, say ten minutes, and at the end it is the person with the most frogs on the lilypad who wins.

As they get older/better at maths you can do it with two dice.

Plus you can get faster as they get more familiar with it too - the pressure towards the end of the ten minutes can speed things up a lot especilly if they've got say just 1 on their lilypad and want to have another go before time is up!

Hi LaBelleDamesansPatience:

BBC Learning pages have great resources (worksheets/ video games) differentiated by age here:

for Early Years/ Foundation Stage (Class R): www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/numtums/

For KS1 (Y1/ Y2) here: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/keystage_1/topics/maths_ks1.shtml

I'm not completely clear where your DD is at: but Starship tv programmes (including web game links & worksheets) go through building blocks of counting to first forays into addtion/ subtraction here: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/parents/mathsresources_tv.shtml

You'll have to do a bit of advanced research to work out which games/ worksheets are appropriate at this point for your DD - but it is a really useful resource.

If issue is counting to 100 - play snakes and ladders.

If the issue is counting back from 100 - play snakes and ladders backwards.

(You can also play multiples - so agree which multiple (say 2s) and then with the roll of the dice (say 5) you know you can move 5 twos - and just count them off (you hold up a finger for each two counted)

If the issue isn't counting but is moving on to addition/ subtraction (say to 20) I'd highly recommend card games.

Addition/ subtraction to 10:

Pick out the Jack/ Queen/ King cards from the deck so you only have Ace to 9. Tell DD Ace is one. Shuffle cards and start playing - each player picks two cards and then works out the sum.

If it will help - this can be done with raisins, m&ms, buttons, etc... so you can make the appropriate piles and then count up -so that she can visualise what the numbers represent whilst she's learning.

If she can't add beyond say 3 - then just start with cards up to 3 and gradually add more in to make it challenging.

Addition to 20: Same game but include Jack and say it is 10. - but this time just pick one card (say 9) and then work out what you would have to add to 9 to make 20.

Addition to 30 - Same game but include Queen and say it is 20. (can play this either with one or two cards). If still using raisins/ smarties (buy in lots).

HTH

Great thread!

Agree orchard games are fab - the 'bus stop' one is especially good for simple adding/subtracting.

We recently bought this one:

www.funlearning.co.uk/maths-games/spider-maths-game

The guy at the shop also recommended if the child has some basic ideas.

www.funlearning.co.uk/maths-games/pop-for-addition-and-subtraction-maths-game

DD still counts the dots on the die but starts to recognise small additions like 2+3.

Haven't been on mn for a while, so am excited by all these ideas! Going to put this in favourites and worknthrough them. Thank you!!

good online games on topmarks, ict games and sumdog