Page 7 - Raise Coronavirus Edition 3

FEATURE
Have fun with your child and make memories. Playing games and exploring the environment around us is a practical way
to encourage numeracy skills.
You can engage in:
• board games such as Monopoly, Yahtzee or Snakes and Ladders
• counting games to practise times tables
• dot-to-dot activities to identify the order of numbers
• card games such as Uno
• sudoku puzzles
Take your children on a “maths walk”:
• compare the size of trees and plants
• have your child find a number of items
• ask them to locate an object that has symmetry
• count the petals on a flower
• discuss seasons
• measure the temperature – is it hotter or colder today and by how
many degrees?
Structure mathematical problems around your child’s interests. For example, if their interest is trains then while playing with trains get them to:
• count them or order them in size
• plan a train journey and look at timetables and costs for your family
to go on an adventure 7 Reading books that feature numbers and counting can
introduce young children to numbers. Some books to consider:
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• At the Beach I See by Kamsani Bin Salleh
• Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
• 12 Days of Aussie Christmas by Colin Buchanan
Learning is a journey and we are all lifelong learners. Start as early as you possibly can to teach young children how to count, recognise numbers/ shapes, measure, sort, match and share.
All children are different and so are their learning styles. This is why it is
so important to provide a variety of experiences, strategies and hands-on activities to engage them and encourage them to decide how they learn best and what strategies they feel confident to use to solve problems. Hopefully, with this growing confidence in maths, your child’s love of numbers will grow too. After all, mathematics is something that they will use for life, regardless of what road they decide to travel down.
Rebecca is a Year 7 Teacher at MacKillop Catholic College, Mount Peter and a mother of a three and five year old.
RAISE MAGAZINE • SPECIAL EDITION 3