One of the areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeacy (PRSN). This means that children in the EYFS must be provided with the opportunity and encouragement to develop skills in these areas.
By the end of the EYFS children should be able to:
- Say and use number names in order in familiar contexts
- Count reliably up to ten everyday objects
- Recognise numerals 1 to 9
- Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems
- Begin to use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting (in practical activities and discussion)
- Use language such as ‘more’ or ‘less’ to compare two numbers
- Find one more or one less than a number from one to ten
- Begin to relate addition to combining two groups of objects and subtraction to ‘taking away’
- Use language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’ or ‘lighter’ to compare quantities.
- Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns
- Use language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes
- Use everyday words to describe position
Play activities that encourage children to achieve these outcomes include:
- Singing counting rhymes eg. five little ducks went swimming one day
- Sorting / matching things by colour, shape, size
Playing games that involve counting items eg. the spots and bones in the game Spotty Dogs, the ladybirds in The Game of Ladybirds or the birds in Scaredy Cat- Matching counters to a number card or doing match & count puzzles
- Playing with simple scales to measure which items are heavier than others
- Cooking with children (estimating, weighing, adding, more/ less)
- Playing with magnetic numbers to put them in order
- Playing with dice
- Playing skittles (how many do you have, how many did you knock down, how many are left?)
- Posters with numbers / shapes
- Games recognising shapes (e.g. Shape Snap)
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Drawing shape patterns
- Making patterns with cotton reels / beads when threading or with pegs on a pegboard
Pingback: Colour Matching | Littlesheep Learning