Blog - Nursery Talk

Nurturing Maths

Today is World Maths Day, an annual event that encourages thousands of students from across the globe to participate in maths themed games to win a variety of prizes and certificates, the ultimate aim is to raise standards of numeracy in the young in an enjoyable and fun way.

Although this event is from the age of five, it reiterates the importance of mathematics, the skills of which can be nurtured from birth. Basic mathematical concepts surround us in our everyday environment, shapes, groupings, the idea of more and less are a few examples. There are many activities that you can do with your child to encourage their interest in mathematics.

“If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics” Galileo Galilei. By pre-school, children should be using mathematical language in everyday play like small, medium and tall. Here at Boys & Girls Nursery the little ones learn about key concepts as part of the EYFS from discussing the date twice a day during circle time to simply learning routines, the latter provides a greater understanding of sequence, time, cause and effect. Kelly Ridge our Area Manager suggests a number of activities that take place at the nursery on a daily basis, which can also be completed at home:

Activities:
Butterfly Pictures – symmetry and patterns
Puzzles – problem solving and matching
Cooking – weighing, measuring and mixing
Water Play – pouring and measuring
Board Games – turn taking, numbers and their values
What’s The Time Mr Wolf – numbers and their values
Matching Pairs / Lotto – shape recognition, matching and problem solving
Leaf sorting / collecting – sort a range of natural resources – colour, sizes and shapes
Pasta Play – sorting, pairing and counting
Hop Scotch – counting, number recognition and their values
Height Charts – comparing sizes
Walks / Exploring the Environment – seeing numbers in everyday life