Early Years Maths Ideas

We’ve posted before about early years maths ideas at The Wigwam and it’s a topic we’re passionate about! Maths is all around us; we don’t have a maths area as we help children explore and learn through all areas of play.

Maths is one of the specific areas in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which we of course follow at The Wigwam. The EYFS is the standard that childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5. According to the EYFS, we must provide children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measure.

Early Years Maths Ideas can be difficult for parents, and you may find this resource from Foundation Years a good starting point.

We’ve included some other simple ideas below, some you can start from birth!

Count the stairs as you’re climbing them!
Getting dress time is ideal for counting things like buttons – ideal for babies with all those babygrow poppers!
Count out things when you’re doing nappy changes “we need one nappy, one pot of cream and two new socks!”
When you’re setting the table, ask your toddler who is coming for dinner and then work together to lay the table getting the right number of plates / forks etc
While out for a walk collect different items and then play sorting activities; this could be by shape, colour, size….
Different containers at bath time are ideal for learning about filling, pouring and size
Enlist the help of your toddler when you’re sorting the washing! Can they help you find pairs of socks or put all the same colours together?
At the supermarket, talk about how many of each you need, talk about big and small. For older children point out the numbers
While in the car, or on the bus, talk about how many things you can see – cars / colours / lampposts / dogs
From birth, you can talk about placement of items “let’s put you under your blanket” “the teddy is behind the book”

Some Pictures of Maths at The Wigwam

Recently, the children have enjoyed playing and exploring lots of sorting and counting activities using our natural resources. Our brilliant staff helped the children use different sized and shaped construction blocks to create a maze, encouraging problem solving skills!

early years maths ideas

Tue 3rd Sep