Tea time!

Making a sandwich, using a variety of pre-priced fillings, provides ample opportunity for practical number work. Skills that can be developed:

• placing the ingredients in the order they will be used, identifying which will be 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. (ordinal numbers)
• working out how much their sandwich will cost (addition)
• deciding which fillings they can have within a given budget (addition and subtraction)
• understanding that 1 sandwich comprises 2 halves ( fractions)
• ensuring that there is an equal amount of filling (e.g. the same number of tomato slices) to put on both slices of bread (division)
• cutting the sandwich into half and quarter (division)

Hopping frogs

For these activities you will need a set of 10 card lily pads, numbered 1 - 10. If you make them small enough to fit across a table then you will also need a toy frog to hop up and down them. If you make them larger, they can be placed across the floor and the children can become the hopping frogs! They should use 1 hop to move on 1 lily pad.

• Hopping up and down the lily pads (becoming familiar with the number line 1-10)
• Start on lily pad number 2, if they hop on 4 more, which number lily pad will they land on? Count as they are hopping. (Counting on - early addition)
• Similar process to above, this time children begin on a higher number and hop a given number of lily pads down it. (Counting back - early subtraction)
• Hopping up number line, 2 hops each time. (Repeated addition - intro to multiplication)
• Mix up the lily pads - and explain to pupils that the frog can't go anywhere unless its lily pads are placed back in the correct order. (recognising the numerals 1-10 and knowing their correct sequence)
• Ask children to place the right number of frogs on each lily pad. (knowing that the number of a set is determined by the last numeral counted)

Mrs Cluck

These activities require a toy hen, egg boxes and a collection of 'eggs'.

• Mrs Cluck is a very tidy fowl, who prefers her eggs to be put into the boxes in pairs - can children do this and count on in steps of 2? (repeated addition / early multiplication)
• How many eggs can be placed into an egg box? How many are left over? How many eggs would be needed to fill 2 egg boxes? (division)
• How many different ways can 8 eggs be split between 2/3 egg boxes? (division)
• Put a different number of eggs into each box - ask pupils to find out how many eggs there are altogether? (addition)