Maths Games and Activities at home for 4 and 5 year olds
Try these brilliant fun maths activities and with board games, dice games and card games, all with parent advice, feel empowered to help your young child understand maths
Fun family maths activities and games learning to recognise small numbers without counting.
1 Hide Two and Seek
Discover how much you can really help your child with maths at home by having fun with these practical maths activities.
Introduce the learning by playing with real objects. All the educational research shows that this promotes the best maths learning, but children often miss out because it can’t happen on a screen or in a workbook, and doesn’t work so well with a large group of children.
Extend the maths learning with pictures. This is a bigger step than you might think but because those pictures are photos of real objects familiar to your child, you’re helping them take their learning to the next level in easy stages. Brilliant!
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and games to develop familiarity with the shape of numbers 1 to 9
2 Choose a prize
Beginner writers find lots of reasonable ways to form numbers that don’t quite match the recognised form.
Share colouring number shapes, and feeling number shapes in a bag - combine with a number shape board game and your child will have experienced very strong visual and tactile learning which will really help their ability to form the numbers with pen and paper.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and games to develop understanding that the last number in a count is the number label given to the whole set.
3 Magic counting Beans
Get the maths learning started in a fun way with a classic number rhyme. It’s actions help the whole body be involved in getting a feel for number, a superb foundation to build mathematical learning.
Make some magic counting beans, my absolute favourite as an easy way to bring numbers to life. They’re also great for addition, subtraction and your child will be getting an early introduction to probability too, Wow.
When they’re starting out with numbers a child may count ladybirds - one, two, three - but not realise that they can then say that there are three ladybirds in the group. It seems obvious but it isn’t. As you play and talk about the counting beans, this important link will be revealed.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
Fun family maths activities and dice game learning to touch count.
4 In the jungle
Pattern is fundamental to music and maths, and this is one reason why they are thought to be closely related. A number song is easier for a child to remember because of the relationship of the words and the musical pattern. Get singing and the rhythm will support your child’s memorisation of the order of numbers up to five.
By playing with real life objects in the counting game, you will share an experience very valuable to your child. You simply cannot pick up this experience from the page of a maths workbook or a screen, and such activities are difficult to manage with a large class of children. Objects of different sizes are deliberately chosen to touch-count as this extends the learning to the next step beyond touch counting very similar objects.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities, dice game and board game matching a number symbol to an amount.
5 Start to finish
Your child may be confident to say, for example, “eight” when she sees the abstract symbol ‘8’, and although to an adult it seems obvious it’s another big learning step to have a mathematical understanding of the amount eight.
Connecting physical actions to the numbers is the most powerful way to develop this learning. Have fun with these number recognition activities and games and what you share will be so valuable to your child’s learning. The numbers will be brought to life in a way that simply cannot happen on screens or on the pages of workbooks.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning the language of size.
6 Little big lotto
Being able to talk about how two things compare with each other is an important mathematical skill.
Starting this learning journey with your child’s clothes is a brilliant example of how maths at home can make so much more sense, linked to the familiar real world rather than being introduced on a screen or workbook. Have fun playing the little and big lotto game and extend the language you share.
Cooking together is a great way to help your child with maths at home. Try out these ideas for some recipe variations to make the language of comparison real for your child.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and dice game learning the order of numbers 1 to 10
7 All in Order
Your child may be very confident to say “one, two, three,...nine, ten” as a rhyme. Although it seems to follow on, to put the symbols 1, 2, 3...9, 10 in order is another big maths learning step.
A number song is easier for a child to remember because of the relationship of the words and the musical pattern. Get singing and the rhythm will support your child’s memorisation of the order of numbers up to ten.
Play the ordering numbers dice game and by sharing only short parts of the sequence saying “three, four, five” for example, and you will be really helping your child to take their number learning to the next level.
With number cards your child can play with the order of the number symbols, and it’s very easy to make adjustments - no crosses needed!
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and games learning that the last number in the count is the number label given to the whole set.
8 More Magic Counting Beans
Make some magic counting beans, my absolute favourite as an easy way to bring numbers to life while having fun with maths. They’re also great for addition, subtraction and your child will be getting an early introduction to probability too, wow.
Using photos is a powerful way to support your child moving on their maths learning from counting objects to counting more abstract pictures which cannot be handled. It’s a lot harder for your child, but because they will be counting from an image of objects that they have already handled themselves you will be providing very special support for this maths learning.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and counting board game learning to label a set of objects with a number e.g.5
9 Spotty Cats and Dogs
By sharing these activities with your child at home you will be supporting their maths learning in easy stages, so that they can be confident labelling a set of objects on the page with the symbol 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
By playing the counting board game several times your child may begin to develop the skill of ‘subitising’ sets of three and maybe four - that is, recognising the number in a group without counting. Recent research suggests that subitising can help children build images for numbers and that this in turn is a great foundation for them to learn number facts.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and dice games learning to compare the size of numbers.
10 More
Share the classic ‘one potato’ action song with your child and the pattern of the rhyme in the song will reinforce their memorisation of the sequence of numbers up to seven.
Play the game with different dice and not only will your child be securing their understanding about the size of numbers but they will also have valuable practise subitising numbers too.
To help a child with maths age 4 to 5. Most of content covered early in the reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game recognising shapes square, circle and triangle.
11 Shape Match
Start sharing the language of shape with your child and marvel at the natural world as you sort through some leaves.
Play the shape game and your child will have lots of opportunity to identify squares, circles and triangles.
Get creative together as you explore the relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. You might be surprised with some of the results!
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and dice games learning about the sequence of numbers up to ten
12 Three Two One
Share the first activity with your child and you will be cleverly moving their learning one important step on from saying “one, two, three, four...nine, ten” as a rhyme.
Make a number track together and this helpful aid to discovery and mathematical understanding will be more meaningful for your child.
Play the number game, and as your child discovers which dice to choose in order to win they will be demonstrating their understanding - no need for a test!
Extend the maths learning with a game that you can share anywhere, anytime!
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths card game and activities looking for patterns.
13 Pattern-Match Dominoes
Recognising pattern is an important skill for mathematical understanding. It helps us to link different bits of learning together so that they make more sense.
Share a pattern hunt in your familiar surroundings, a great example of how maths at home can make so much more sense, and you might be surprised what you find! It will be a brilliant way to get you started sharing the language.
Play a special version of dominoes and have fun helping your child develop pattern recognition skills.
Share the final activity for some treats to eat… and some great maths language-learning opportunities.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and games learning to subitise to three.
14 Three dabby doozle
Get started with a powerful creative maths activity, home-made paper boats and a traditional song and your child will have strong foundations to picture ‘three’ even when there are no objects to handle.
Play the game and have fun as your child develops the skills of seeing two, three and four without counting. This is called subitising. Watch out – when you start to lose they will have mastered it!
Help your child move the maths learning to the next level, developing the ability to recognise three objects in a picture, with the clever support of photos.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and games learning about weight
15 Heavy Weight
Sharing these maths activities with your child at home will be so valuable. These practical experiences will underpin their learning for years to come. You simply cannot pick up this experience from the page of a maths workbook or a screen, and such activities are difficult to manage with a large class of children.
Share these fun family activities at home and there will be so much opportunity for your child to discover the maths of weight and volume, as well as the value of working systematically.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning to recognise one more.
16 Lois the ladybirds
The secure maths understanding of one more and one less will be a great foundation for your child to develop addition and subtraction skills.
Educational experts talk about an ideal sequence for maths learning as: start with concrete then, pictorial, then abstract. Starting the learning journey for any new maths playing with familiar objects at home is just brilliant - it’s the concrete bit and it can’t happen on a screen or in a workbook, and because it can be difficult to manage with a large class of children your child may miss out.
Share further activities and games with your child, have lots of fun, change the type of dice you use and they will be seamlessly guided through new levels of maths learning.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5.
Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
Fun family maths activities and card game learning the language used to talk about when things happen.
17 Against the Clock
No one is sure why, but it is much more difficult for a child to talk about time than adults would expect.
Share some very different activities and a time memory game with your child and you will share lots of language and a good deal of fun too.
Any topic linked with the daily life of your child will make more sense of the maths for them. For their learning about time this will be especially valuable.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5.
Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
Fun family maths activities and board game learning to count in twos.
18 In Pairs
Be confident that by sharing something as quick and simple as counting pairs of shoes with your child you will be giving meaning and strong foundations to their learning of the two times table.
The hidey activity cleverly takes the learning to the next level, encouraging your child to develop mental images that will always be available in their memory to help them.
Play the counting in twos board game, enjoy some treats and for the final fling get drawing and you will be supporting your child through new levels of maths learning.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5.
Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
Fun family maths activities and card game learning to sort objects in different ways.
19 Odd One Out
As adults we have developed unique ways to sort our stuff.
Share some of your ideas when you try these activities and games with your child and they will have brilliant opportunities to discover and talk about grouping objects in different ways.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5.
Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
Fun family maths activities and games learning to subitise up to four.
20 Feel 4 Four
By playing games with a dotty dice your child may have learned to recognise the pattern of, for example, four dots as four. This is a brilliant start to their development of the skill of subitising - identifying how many there are in a set without having to count.
Research shows that babies can subitise two and toddlers three - but four is quite a big jump, and five is our brain’s limit without using pattern.
Share these fun games and activities with your child and they will be guided to develop subitising skills.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5.
Most of content covered in mid reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
Fun family maths activities and dice game learning to talk about length.
21 Getting shorter
Share some special moments with your child as you reflect and discover about the amazing growth of the human body - get talking about length too!
Food is a brilliant starting point for your child to have really meaningful experiences of maths at home. Play the game and have lots of fun discovering and sharing the rich language of size.
Help your child further develop the learning with an activity you can have fun with anywhere, anytime.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning about addition in a practical way.
22 Counting Fingers
Interestingly ancient number systems were not all based, as ours is, on ten - but it is no coincidence that we have ten fingers!
Share these fun family activities at home with your child and they will have lots of practical experience of addition, and in particular numbers which add to ten. Teachers call this ‘number bonds to ten’.
Because ten is fundamental to our number system, helping your child have a very secure basis for remembering these number facts will help them with a whole host of other maths.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and dice game learning to recognise different coins.
23 Coin Collection
Children naturally enjoy playing with coins. By handling real coins at home rather than plastic imitations your child will be in a much better position to gain a secure knowledge of the similarities and differences between them – brilliant.
Share the dice game and get creative, have fun as you share your discoveries about the coin’s properties and lots of maths language.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning about even and odd numbers.
24 The Even Chase
Grounding your child’s understanding of odd and even numbers with their experience of odd socks is a brilliant example that the maths you share at home with your child can have a powerful impact on their understanding and attainment. I have worked with GCSE students unable to answer questions which mention even or odd because they become confused which is which.
Share the fun of the game for lots of opportunity to practice the skill of identifying numbers as even or odd.
Extend the learning with an activity that you can share anywhere anytime.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities learning to talk about differences and similarities.
25 Animal sort
Deciding how to group objects together is an important mathematical skill that will help your child to apply logical thought to their maths and much more.
You’ll be giving your child a head start in logical thinking by handling familiar objects at home rather than starting the learning journey with abstract pictures in a workbook or on a screen.
By your sharing of these activities with your child, they will learn the language of sorting, similarities, and differences – brilliant.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and card game learning about subtraction in a practical way
26 Currant Buns
When two numbers are subtracted from one another there are lots of reasonable ways to get the wrong answer.
Have fun trying out different versions of the number rhyme five currant buns and your child’s prior understanding of subtraction will be cleverly revealed in a fun way - no test needed!
By talking with your child as you play the subtraction game with one pence coins and the context of the purse grid they will have a clear basis for subtraction - lots of actual practical taking away. This is so valuable to your child as the memory will remain in your child’s subconscious to help with every abstract subtraction ‘sum’.
With currant buns for a theme, cooking is a perfect final activity to really solidify that maths learning.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning to partition numbers in different ways.
27 Car Race
Starting with an answer and finding all the different sums that equal that answer is a brilliant way to learn about how sums work because it helps you to discover patterns and links that in turn make new brain connections. Jo Boaler, who has been at the forefront of maths education research for many years, says “it helps your brain grow”.
Based on this theory, start the learning with a strong foundation handling a range of objects, play the number board game, and your child will have lots of opportunity to grow their understanding of addition and number.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning about doubles.
28 Spider’s web doubles
Enjoy some creative maths fun to get the learning started.
Play the doubles dice game and share the excitement when you score a double! The dotty dice and the conversation you share will help your child remember that for example, double six is twelve.
This alone is a great help when your child is learning addition facts but these games and activities offer a whole lot more. By seeing, for example, six dots on both dice, your child will experience a powerful real life example of the fundamental relationship between addition and multiplication.
Your child will also be able to draw upon a knowledge of doubles to make the task of learning lots of times tables facts a whole lot easier.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
Fun family maths activities and board game learning about number words up to ten.
29 Car Chase
Get the maths learning started by sharing the reading of some classic number rhymes.
Get creative and by helping your child relate number words to things which have special special meaning to them you will harness the learning power of working individually, making maths real to them.
Have fun playing variations of the number words game and you will be supporting your child through several new levels of learning.
To help a child with maths at home age 4 to 5. Most of content covered in late reception year maths curriculum UK
Download pdf package of games and activities along with advice on how to support your child to discover and enjoy this bit of maths at home.
free
