A few easy Maths activities and a freebie :)

Well, there are two days left of holidays... staff at my school head back on Thursday though my mind is already well and truly at school!

I'll be teaching Receptions again this year (love it!) and I'll have a combination of brand newies and kids who have already been at school for a term or two. I've been getting some Maths games organised so lots of laminating, cutting and sorting.... my hands are already sore! Our Reception classes are quite small to start with, so its a perfect time to teach kids how to play games that they'll be using throughout the year. It also means I can get stuck into the formative assessment...  I learn so much about what the kids know just from watching them playing.

 Because there we quite a range of abilities, I want to have simple games that can be easily differentiated for the kids' ability levels. I love it if I can use the same equipment with all (or most) of the class and just tweak the activity to suit the individual... so much easier than setting up ten different activities!

 I thought I'd share a couple of simple Maths games/activities to do with number that I'm planning to use with the kiddos in the first days back at school....

So... here are a couple of the activities that I've organised :)

Ice Cream Scoop

This simple matching activity is great for start of the year. Simply match the ten frame with the numeral and you have your ice cream!

Each kiddo will have a with a laminated copy of 1 - 10 Ten frame strip as a reference on their desk, so they can use this as support if needed.

For those kids who have been at school for a while and are confident with 

1 - 10, I will use the same cards, but ask them to make a number using 2 scoops (so simple addition to 10 with two addends) or even three scoops (3 addends). As for those kids who are fine with this, I'll ask them to show me all the different ways they can make 10 (using the 10 cone) or, use the blank cone to make a larger amount.

This next activity was Pinterest inspired - I saw the Lego blocks being used to make words for spelling and I thought I'd adjust it for Maths!

Lego Maths

Again, easy to differentiate... you could do skip counting, using larger numbers, counting backwards... ideas are endless!

Roll and Colour

And finally, a Roll and Colour game - two versions, one for practicing 1 - 10 (or 1 - 6 if you use a 1 - 6 die) and one for doubles.

You can download a copy of Roll and Colour games here, I have included an Australian and US version, with 'colour' spelt differently :)

I hope you find these useful, if you're heading back to school later on in the week, I hope you have a lovely last few days of summer holidays!