Halloween Maths with Mrs Mactivity

I’m thrilled to be able to bring you an awesome guest post from Mrs Mactivity, who make fun creative learning resources for parents and teachers.

 Kids really love seasonal events – be it Easter, Christmas or Halloween, and it’s a really good opportunity to spend time together enjoying all the creative aspects of that particular season. This can include local events and parties, but also activities that you can enjoy together at home too. We often find that children are particularly inspired and motivated to take part in learning activities related to the event  – so it’s a good opportunity to jump in and contextualise activities in something they are already interested in.

Today, let’s talk about Halloween and maths! Not something you would traditionally put together, but we’ve created a spooky fun and creative maths activity for the Early Years age range, to help practise and understand number bonds within 10. Before you start the activity, it’s always an idea to get a feel for whether it’s suitable for your child – as if it’s too easy or too difficult, they will instantly lose interest. Here are some fun early maths ideas!

1. Does your child know their number bonds to 10? This is a key skill to help children build up their knowledge of number facts. Using pom poms or another counting object of your choice, ask them to add on objects to make 10, for example, put out 6 pom poms and ask them to count how many more are needed to make 10. Do this for all facts, e.g. 3+7, 2+8 etc. Remember to reverse them too so they understand that if they already know that 4+6 = 10 then by necessity 6+4 also equals 10.
2. When they are confident with this (it may take a while, and if they’re not ready, they’re not ready!) see if they can start to recall facts without using any objects. It’s fine to go back to counting objects if needed, and don’t forget that it’s always good to count whenever you can – going up and down the stairs, number of people in in the family, how many peas on your plate, that sort of thing.
3. Practise number recognition. Do they know that a 3 means 3 things? Again practise with real life objects, then recap.

   

   

4. When you think they’re ready, introduce the concept of number bonds within 10. This basically means any two numbers when added together that make less than 10. For example, 2+3, or 4+5. They might find it easier to do this before they know their number bonds TO 10, see what works best for your child. Again, start by using objects and keep reinforcing the recognition of numbers.
5. Now you can try our Halloween Maths Activity! Cut out the number cards and ask your child to place them on the correct sum. Maybe do an evil laugh every time they get it right?!

Play regularly, see how many they get right each time compared to the time before. Praise and praise again!

For more creative activity and craft ideas go to www.mrsmactivity.co.uk