We have had lots of fun with Maths this week as we have been exploring counting and discovering that there are so many things around us that we can count!
We continue to start each Maths session with our Speedy Shuffle cards, giving the children lots of opportunities to practise subitising. They are becoming more confident at recognising small amounts quickly without needing to count each object, even when the objects are arranged in different ways.
Our good friend Mr Puppet has been helping us with our counting this week. He has been very funny and, as usual, managed to get himself a little muddled! The children loved spotting his mistakes and showing him how to count carefully. This helped us think about making sure we count each object once and that the last number we say tells us how many there are altogether.
We also discovered that we can count sounds! Mr Puppet brought out his drum and we listened carefully to the beats, counting how many we could hear. This was a little trickier because we couldn’t see the sounds, so we had to concentrate and keep track as we counted. The children then had lots of fun making their own sounds for their friends to count. We also enjoyed singing our favourite ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive’ counting song to help us practise saying our numbers in order.
We then put our counting skills into practice around the classroom. Working in small groups, the children became Maths detectives and counted the chairs around our tables, doors, display boards and lots of other things they spotted. As these objects were too big to move, the children had to think carefully about how to keep track of what they had already counted.
Some children also came up to show the class how they had counted and share how many they had found. This gave them the chance to show their friends how they had worked it out and practise counting carefully together.
Throughout the week, Mr Puppet has been so proud of the children’s resilience. They have kept trying when their counting has been tricky, spotted mistakes and helped one another along the way!
