This simple little place value number game is a favourite of Maddie's (aged 6) at school and at home. 

Use it to practice recognising numbers, writing numbers and place value, along with problem solving. 

You can play with two or more people and it is great as a whole class game on the whiteboard (with teacher vs students) or just in pairs (parent and child/two children).

You can use this activity for practicing two digit numbers (with tens and ones), three digit numbers (hundreds, tens and ones), four digit numbers (thousands, hundreds, tens and ones) and so on.

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It's mid-year toy sale time in Australia which means lots of brightly coloured, kid friendly catalogues!

Milly (aged 3.5) was eager to scan the pages too (while I poured over mine) so we turned it into a bit of a game for added learning fun with a focus on basic number recognition.

Ages: 3+

(see Handy Tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet individual children's needs)

Materials: Catalogues, highlighters and an example of written numbers.

(I just quickly made a basic grid in Microsoft Word which you can download HERE if you like, otherwise, just write the numbers on a piece of paper)

First, read through the numbers with your child. 

Depending on their age, have them pick one (or multiple) number/s to find in the catalogue. Colour each of the chosen numbers in a different colour.

Hunting, hunting...

(Kids just love doing things that are similar to how adults do it!)

When you spot one of the chosen numbers, colour it the matching colour.

Done hunting for 3, 4 & 5. Next she wanted to search for the number 2.

Handy tips:

- Simplify this activity by sticking to one number and focusing on helping your child to recognise it. For example, choose the number 2. Talk about the number and the symbol. What does the (2) symbol represent? Show me 2 fingers, 2 highlighters. etc. Make sure they have the connection between the symbol and the amount as well as the ability to recognise it.

- Extend this activity by working on higher numbers and looking at place value. You can start to talk about the money side and dollars and cents. You could look at "more" and "less" and talk about what you consider "cheap/affordable" and "expensive".

- You could use this activity with any publication that displays numbers.

- Mix it up by making it a challenge. ie. Find two 2's, three 3's, four 4's etc. Have a race with your child to see who can spot a chosen number first or have them race against siblings.

-  Repeat numerous times. Some children will need very few exposures to something before they have learnt and understood it, others will need the information reinforced many times before it's committed to memory. Each child is different so work to your child's abilities.

- Make a wish list of items in the catalogues for added literacy learning.



Happy playing,
Debs :)

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A little while back, due to an over-enthusiastic run-in hug with Daddy (her fault, not his), my little 3 year old lost a tooth! *sob*
Thankfully she was less upset over it than I was and after receiving $5 from the Tooth Fairy I decided we'd turn this unfortunate event, into a fun Maths learning excursion.

I decided to help her learn her numbers, (one at a time) with a fun shopping trip to spend the $5. Due to her age we focused mainly on number recognition while also touching on money and very simple addition.

Ages: 2+

(See ideas at the bottom to Extend or Simplify to meet your child's needs)

 As the focus of this trip was learning about the number 5, I gave her a $5 note (as opposed to, say 5, $1 coins) because it had the number 5 on it.

 We went to our local K-Mart as I knew that their price labels are very clear and easy to spot the numbers. Well, she found a 5 straight away (Therefore she could buy this, right?... nope) so we had the chance to talk about the preceding number and how that made it a different value, etc. This was practice recognising other numbers as well as learning about place value.

 It didn't take long for her to start spotting the 5's (on their own) all over the place

 But, what was she to buy? It was too hard to choose just 1 thing so this is where we brought the simple addition in. I exchanged her $5 note (we'd succeeded in learning to recognise the number 5 by now) for 5, $1 coins... allowing her the freedom to purchase more than one item.

This is where the simple addition came in. She finally decided on a $3 pack of markers and a $2 light-up pen. 3 and 2 together make 5! Using dollar coins for this allowed her to physically manipulate the coins to see how the addition worked and see exactly what she could buy.

Even months on from this activity, she will still inform me of any 5's she notices on price tags. They are everywhere! lol


Handy tips:

- You could use this for any number and play it while doing any kind of outing.

- Your child doesn't need to purchase anything. That just gave it more meaning and relevance for us, but you could always just play a game to see who could spot the most of a chosen number etc.

- Change the number each time you go out to learn all the numbers.

-  Repeat numerous times. Some children will need very few exposures to something before they have learnt and understood it, others will need the information reinforced many times before it's committed to memory. Each child is different so work to your child's abilities.

- To extend this activity, set your child different challenges with the money (eg, find me 2 items that add up to that amount etc) and start to focus more on addition and place value

- To simplify this activity, stick to one number and focus on helping your child to recognise it. Leave out any addition etc



Happy playing,
Debs :)

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