Exploring and Playing
Short Blocks
Maths Reception Summer Patterns
Hamilton's Reception Maths planning targets the key characteristics of effective early learning:
- Through Exploring and Playing, children independently engage with their peers and their environment.
- Active Learning group activities promote the motivation needed to be involved and to keep trying.
- Guided Creating and Thinking Critically supports development of problem-solving & reasoning skills.
Maths Out Loud: whole-class counting, repetitive chants, rhymes, songs and a linked story to enjoy together.
Doubling and halving (suggested as 5 days)
Active Learning
Creating and Thinking Critically
Maths Out Loud
Counting
Mexican wave counting. Seat children in a circle. One child raises both arms as you all say ‘2’. The child puts them down again. The next child raises their arms as you all say ‘4’, and so on round the circle. Work towards increasing the pace as children learn the game and the number sequence…
Number bonds
Show children how to hold up both of their thumbs side by side. One add one is two. Ask children to hold up both thumbs and index fingers. Two add two is four.
Repeat, showing 3 + 3, 4 + 4 and 5 + 5. Record these on the flipchart. These are doubles! Double 1 is 2, double 2 is 4 …
Chants/Rhymes/Songs
Children act out each part of the rhyme with their fingers.
One and one are two,
One for me and one for you.
Two and two are four,
Standing knocking on the door.
Three and three are six,
Eating up their Weetabix.
Four and four are eight,
Two fat circles, that’s just great.
Five and five are ten,
All our fingers up again!
Story
Two of everything by Lily Toy Hong. Mr. and Mrs Haktak discover a mysterious brass pot that doubles whatever is placed inside…!
You Will Need
Exploring and Playing
Large ladybird/butterfly outlines, paint and brushes or gummed spots; hopscotch grid and bean bag; equal sized wooden bricks; rocker balance; number cards 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10; play foodstuffs, playdough, pairs of plates and plastic knives
Active Learning
Large 1 to 6 dice; cubes; biscuits and two plates; a selection of objects, quantities and collections of objects to halve, e.g. box of 4 cakes, 10 pennies, length of ribbon, bottle of water, square of paper
Creating and Thinking Critically
Doubles cards; dominoes; 1-20 number track; 1-10 cards; 1-6 dice; paper for each pair; 4, 6, 8 and 10 toys in baskets, e.g. cars, trains, play people and teddies; pennies; ‘yes’ and ‘no’ cards
Fractions (suggested as 5 days)
Exploring and Playing
Active Learning
Creating and Thinking Critically
Maths Out Loud
Counting
Choose random numbers on the 1-100 grid and ask children to start counting from there, saying the next number first.
Number bonds
Show children how to hold up both of their thumbs side by side. Double one is two. Ask children to hold up both thumbs and index fingers. Double two is four. Repeat, showing double 3, 4 and 5. Show me double 2! Now double 4! Double 1! Double 3! Double 5!
Chants/Rhymes/Songs
Sing 10 fat sausages, e.g. this this version from the BBC. Pause after each verse to find half of the numbers of the sausages in the pan.
Story
The Lion's Share: A Tale of Halving Cake and Eating It, Too by Matthew McElligott. An exploration of repeated halving and doubling. Numbers quickly grow to >100, so be prepared to go only as far as your children can cope with…
You Will Need
Exploring and Playing
Variety of play food; plates; small bottles of coloured water, pairs of cups, water tray; pens and mini-world sheep (or other animals); two colours of building bricks, e.g. Lego®.
Active Learning
Pancakes; large biscuits; knives (suitable for children to use); plates and bowls; a selection of foods which can be divided into halves, e.g. cheese sticks/ balls, sandwiches, mini-pizzas, cakes, biscuits, sausage rolls, an even number of grapes, an even number of raisins; a full set of 0-0 to 6-6 dominoes;single fruits which can be quartered, e.g. bananas, apples, strawberries, and numbers of fruits which can be quartered, e.g. 8 strawberries, 12 grapes, 16 satsuma segments.
Creating and Thinking Critically
Cups and a variety of different-shaped containers; number cards (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12), 'Squabbling squirrels' (see resources); 12 acorns (or cubes); snake outlines divided into four sections; green and yellow paint and brushes; paper plates; crayons; pizza pictures.