Sunday 6 March 2016

Don't stop at ten!

Jake learnt all his numbers to ten long ago, but I was recently asked how he was going with the teen numbers and realised that for so long he had just been doing 1-10, with not much development beyond that. It is really common that the children easily get good at 1-10 and then just don’t progress further for a long time, so I thought it was a good idea to encourage you all to keep going! We have had lots of fun at home and school playing a little game with all the number cards from 1-20. Any child who has a fair ability to recognise the numbers 1-10 can do this game as learning numbers 14-19 helps reinforce the learning of numbers 4-9.
I start by laying out all the cards, telling the children what they are as I do so. 

Then, we play finding the numbers, but in order, so I start by asking the children to find me number one. After we have found it and placed it in the line, I ask them what comes after number one. Often as they get to the bigger numbers they need to go back to number one and count through to figure out what number comes next, so this is great counting practice too. I have them point to the cards in the line as they count for extra reinforcement recognizing the numbers.

When they have laid all the numbers out from 1-20 go back and count with them all the way through. Jake was really struggling to remember 15 when he was counting, but having the numbers in front of him helped to not forget any of them. We pretended the number cards were train stations and we needed to put them in order along the track. At the end we pretended we were the train going through all the stations and announcing the numbers…
Notes on teaching teen numbers
11 – remind them at the start it is a 1 and a 1 – hold up index finger on both hands
12 – I say t for two and t for twelve
13 – Th for three and th for thirteen
14-19 – Use the same associations for 4-9 and point to the one in front of it as you say teen.

Four – while tracing over the number say “number four, shut the door” (chopping through the number is shut the door)

Five – we have five fingers on our hand (hold up your hand and then make a hook with your fingers and thumb and show that it is a hook like at the bottom of the five. It is also fun to give them a high five and if they are at all interested in pirates you can say that we have five fingers but instead Captain Hook has a hook.
Six – silly, silly six is standing on his head with his feet in the air (he is so silly isn’t he!)
Seven – number seven, straight straight to heaven (trace over the number showing how it is a straight line)
Eight – eight like a roller coaster (trace around the eight showing how it is like a roller coaster going around and around. If your child doesn’t understand what a roller coaster is you can say it is like a crazy little dog, when you stand in the middle it runs around and around. Pretend that they are standing in the middle of the eight and show them how the crazy little dog is so excited that it runs around and around).
Nine – Sensible number nine (number nine isn’t like number six at all, he is very sensible. Number nine stands up nice and straight with his head in the air and his feet on the floor. Not like silly number six). *This is often a number that children get confused with six, so it is very good to accentuate the difference.

Here is a link to printable number cards in case you don't have any:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzunNaHHgjpLVJoUTVVcmVmQU0/view?usp=sharing

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