Early years activity: Easter maths
This Easter/spring themed sensory tray will be perfect for encouraging the children to engage in a hands on, sensory play experience. It will also help to hone their mathematical thinking and understanding.
Learning aims
- Develop counting skills (1:1 correspondence)
- Begin to understand that the last number you say is how many in a set (cardinality)
- Sorting objects using a variety of properties
- Identifying, creating and continuing simple patterns and begin to understand the concept of ‘what comes next’
Resources you will need
- Tray with shredded green paper (as a base)
- Easter themed items such as plastic/polystyrene eggs, small flowerpots, artificial flowers, mini bugs, chicks, bunnies
- Number cards, small buckets, tweezers, scoops, egg cartons etc.
Easter maths activity guide
- Set up the tray with the paper and Easter items, making it look inviting for the children
- Encourage children to explore the tray, remembering the maths focus throughout
- Encourage children to find the Easter/spring themed resources. Encourage them to count and subitise (finding the matching numeral, if appropriate), order them by size, make them into a pattern, sort them by colour/shape, etc
- Model mathematical language throughout and encourage the children to use it too e.g. “Sam, you have found 3 chicks. I wonder if you have more bunnies or more chicks?”, “Can you fit all of your eggs into the egg box? Why? Why not?”, “Look, I have made a pattern – egg, chick, egg, chick, egg…what comes next? What pattern can you make?”
- Perhaps introduce a dice and encourage the children to collect the matching number of objects to encourage subitising, counting with one-to-one correspondence and cardinality
- Most importantly, have fun and allow the children to explore the resources in their own time.
How can you extend this Easter maths activity?
Make an Easter/spring themed treasure basket for babies. This could include things like plastic eggs, wooden spoons, silk/fabric flowers, wooden rings, sturdy pinecones etc.
NDNA products to support you with this activity
Maths Champions – https://ndna.org.uk/product/maths-champions-programme/
Disclaimer: Activities with children must always be risk assessed, including for allergies or choking. Children must always have adequate supervision. Resources and materials must always be appropriate for children’s age and stage of development.
- Activity
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