practical resources maths Reception -

[life1000]

What practical resources do you use with you DC? I am thinking of alternaives to online maths programs etc

I used to use pasta with my DS!

To help him add up numbers i'd empty a bag if pasta shells on the table and he would count out the amounts and add them together.

Is that the kind of thing you mean?

Also used to give him coins to count and encourage him to pay in shops for me for occasional items.

We used an old alarm clock to learn the time too.

Lots of stuff to count - can be anything from steps to toy cars, counters, bits of lego, leaves
Stuff to sort and group - probably the same sort of stuff that can be counted.
You can also use the same things for addition and subtraction - putting two groups of objects together and counting how many altogether, or taking some away and counting how many are left.

Cooking is good, lost of weighing and measuring.
Empty containers of different sizes - egg cups, yoghurt pots etc to fill and empty with sand/rice/water.

Dice, loose change/play money, threading beads (patterns and counting), games like snakes & ladders etc, kitchen and bathroom scales, rulers and height charts; he enjoys playing with a pencil and ruler drawing shapes; plastic shapes and puzzles; we do have a 1 to 100 poster which we got for a couple of quid from the library, he uses that as a number line for adding up sometimes.

The only really specific thing we have is cuisenaire rods and that's mostly for nostalgia value! If you haven't come across them they're little wooden rods in lengths 1-10cm with each length a different colour. Lots of fun to be had of varying degrees of mathsyness.

Numicon is great

Unifix cubes

Dominoes

Oh and UNO.

tins, boxes, empty milk cartons, pans, jugs, egg cups, cups, coins, anything you can count, door number, car number plate, number of the bus, shape of windows, doors, packaging, paving stones, fence, plates etc etc etc Lego is great, board games, cards, dominoes, dice

Numicon is great my ds and dd use it. Ds can work out numbers wo quickly with it. Also Lego pieces are great.

www.pinterest.com/maz21/maths/

Smarties great for subtraction and sorting into groups

DD prefers Ludo to Snakes and Ladders.

www.teachpreschool.org/2012/02/everyday-math-in-preschool/

Numicon is fantastic. Have a 100 square on a wall somewhere. Anything he can count/add/subtract/group/share etc etc etc.