Miss 6 has been having some trouble with her numbers and her teacher recently asked that we practice number sequencing at home. We had previously collected lots of small pebbles from the river and so we dug them out. Miss 6 got to work writing out numbers from zero to 30 on the pebbles.
This in itself was good practice. We used some coloured sharpies to ensure the numbers stayed on. We ran out of pebbles by the time we got to 30, however, I plan on collecting some more so that we can get up to the number 50.
Stone writing
We then lined up the numbers in groups of five – ie. 1 to 5; 6 to 10, in preparation for matching them up on the table that I had prepared.
In the meantime, I quickly (and very roughly!) drew a table with 6 rows and wrote out numbers in sequence, ensuring that I left a couple of blanks on each row.
Miss 6 very quickly set to work, initially going as fast as she could (she can be quite competitive) and as we got to the bigger numbers, she needed a little help and encouragement to select the right numbers.
Once she had finished filling in the blanks, she proceeded to match up all the remaining stones with their numbers – again good practice and reinforcement of what she already knows.
Once she finished filling in the table, we removed all the stones and she had another few shots at it. She experimented with her method as she went along. She identified all the numbers that were already on the table and removed all those stones. Through her process of elimination, she then had a smaller pile of stones to choose from.
I then dug out some larger stones that we had painted a couple of years ago and which had numbers from zero to nine on them. She enjoyed playing with those and wanted me to test her on random double digit numbers.
We may just create some more of these colourful stones and add some extra numbers so that we have a larger range of numbers to play with and so that we can eventually practice three digit numbers.
Aren’t these number stones pretty?
This was a really fun playful activity and to Miss 6, it really didn’t feel like ‘school work’.
Brilliant! My 5yr old has been collecting stones – not nice ones, just random ones! This has given me a great idea on what to use them for – math and art all in one!
Oh fab! We did this a few years ago and we actually still have the stones! I’m going to get them out again and see if we can practise sums, subtractions and maybe even some times table 😉