Our recent Maths lessons have been looking at how the numbers grow when we are counting up.  We have been using the Numberblocks and have been making staircases out of our own blocks so that we can see how the number towers change as they get more. 

The Numberblocks have been helping us with our counting skills and we are becoming very familiar with the numbers 1 to 5.

We watch short clips of the Numberblocks in some of our lessons which demonstrate the skills that we have been learning. 

Some of our favourite clips so far have been from the episodes Stampolines, where the numbers enjoy a day at the Stampoline park making different arrays of their blocks and One, Two, Three where we see Number Three playing tricks with apples. 

An important element of our number work is subitising, where we don't have to count the numbers as we just know what they are. 

We have been using a range of objects and matching them together to show that we understand when dice, counters, tally charts, fingers and beads are the same numbers. 

We have also been practising how to write the numerals too. 

Our Maths lessons follow the Mastering number approach from the NCETM.  The children initially learn the 'principles of counting' where we say each number in order (stable order), count each item once (one to one correspondence) and understand that the last number that we say is the number that we have (cardinal).  

Children use rhymes and songs to learn the numbers. 

Our favourites are '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I caught a fish alive' or '5 Speckled frogs' and '5 Little Monkeys'.