National Numeracy are a charity committed to building the nation's number confidence and skills. Celebrating their National Day on 19th May, they aim to help raise low levels of numeracy among both adults and children and to promote the importance of everyday maths skills.
As a business passionate about children's education and well being, we wanted to show our support with a selection of simple numeracy activities using dough that we have enjoyed with our children - and we hope you do too.
Let's get measuring
This is such a simple idea which is guaranteed to get some giggles. Using play dough (or anything that can be cut into different lengths!), mould some wiggly worms using googly eyes and challenge children to measure them using a ruler.
Let's practice fractions
For this activity, we created an orange using our Tangy Tangerine dough and talked our little ones through cutting it into halves and quarters. You can continue to chop smaller pieces to create sixths or eights, depending on your child's age and understanding.
Let's count
Our Number Play Dough Mats lend themselves to lots of different activities, this being one of the simplest. Available in a set of ten, we used dough to shape the numbers on each and rolled small balls (you could also use beads, felt balls or any small loose parts) to count out the numbers on each one.
Let's use our favourite books
Using your children's favourite story books is a great way to engage them in numeracy play. Here @learning_in_lock_down_london re-created 'Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer' using dough and space-themed loose parts, with lots of talk about numbers and counting to five.
Let's practice writing numbers
Writing numbers is a really important part of numeracy too. This gorgeous set up was by @the_little_adventurer_. They made amazing play dough ladybirds and practised counting by adding different numbers of black bean "spots" and used these gorgeous wooden boards to work on number formation. Lots of fun and lots of learning!