Mathematical Foundations

Key Skills and Concepts

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Topics Covered:
Counting

Subitizating
Estimating
Strategy
Real Life links with number

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Equipment needed:
One print out of a Bingo cards for each below (sets of 4 per page shown below on the attached images)
A pen

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Overview:

This is a simple Bingo style game that can get any number of children moving around, exploring and counting together.

Getting children to count things regularly is really important but can become quite tedious. This activity gives a reason to do this and also encourages children to estimate the size of a number before counting. This will help children understand the size of different numbers rather than just being able to count in a sequence.

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Instructions:
The object of the game is to get a row of 4 numbers tcked off on your grid (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). Take it in turns to play. the first player clearly states a group of items they can see in the real world.

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Eg: The chairs at the kitchen table
or
The birthday cards on the window sill
or
The legs on those two dogs over there

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The player then counts the number of objects they stated and ALL players cross that number on their grid (only knock off one number if you have duplicates on the grid).

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Then it is the next person's turn to choose a real life object.

I have included quite a few different cards so you can give each child a different grid and can send you the automated Bingo Card maker I made on Excel if you message me and ask me for it so you can generate as many as you want.

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Key Questions to ask:
Before they count-
“Why have you chosen that set of objects”
“Which square are you hoping to cross off”
“Would you say there are more or less than 5 of them?"
“What happens when you multiply any number by zero?”

Before they count-

“Are you sure you counted correctly?"
"Has that number helped you?"
"Which number do you need next?"

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Extension:
Use the extension bingo grids instead where players need to solve a simple equation to work out the number for each square. The game is still played in the same way.

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#activityoftheweek

#mathsfoundations

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