number and language play
activities for 0-5 year olds at
National Museum Cardiff
Suitable for Early Years and Family Groups.
have fun with numbers, shapes and words!
This resource gives examples of activities created as part of the Number
Play project, in collaboration with Language and Play Cardiff. For
smaller groups, there are activity bags available that contain all the
resources mentioned. These are suitable for 25 children at a time, in 5
small groups.
If you would like to borrow the activity bags, you must let us know
when booking so that we can make sure that they are available to you.
All groups must book their visit to the Museum in advance –
029 2057 3240.
Groups (particularly those larger than 25) can use the ideas in this
booklet to develop resources which are adapted to the needs of their
specific group.
We hope you have a wonderful time visiting us at National Museum
Cardiff.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning2
Number and Language Play
number and language play
activities before you visit
Plan the visit with your children
•What do you think we will see?
•What would we like to find out?
•Compare the Museum with other large buildings children might know, e.g. the
library or a supermarket.
Calendar countdown
•Draw a row of boxes or squares to represent the number of days until the visit.
Mark each day with a number and count down to the final box or square. Or use
a row of boxes or blocks numbered one to five. Ask the child to remove one box a
day until the visit.
Craft
•Create a simple I-spy game by drawing some shapes, or cutting shapes out of
cardboard, to take with you on your visit.
•Make an animal mask to wear on the day.
•Create finger puppets to use with the counting rhymes.
Books
• Read stories about visiting a Museum e.g.
Maisy goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins
Katie’s Picture Show by James Mayhew
Museum Trip by Barbara Lehman
Mostyn Visits St Fagans! by Catrin Hughes
•Your local library will have many more books to read before and after your visit.
Counting games for the journey
•How many people in your family/group are going to the museum?
• How many windows are on the front of the museum?
• How many steps did you climb to enter the museum?
• You can carry on this questioning whilst you are exploring the museum.
Lastly, don’t forget your camera.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning3
Number and Language Play – Activities before you visit
number and language play
activities for your visit
Here are some suggestions of things you might want to do on your visit. Maps are
available at the Museum’s reception desk.
Please note:
The objects within the galleries are very precious and must not be touched.
However, we do have a hands-on gallery, the Clore Discovery Centre, where
touching is encouraged.
Telling the time
• Find the big clock in the main hall of the museum. What time is it?
•Draw a clock face and ask your children to draw the hands on when you arrive,
and when you leave the museum. Discuss how long your visit was.
•Sing Hickory Dickory Dock
Number Bingo
•You can play this game in any gallery.
•Write the numbers 1 to10 on a piece of paper.
•Start with 1. Ask what this number is. Can you find 1 of something in the
gallery? Next, can you find 2 of the same thing? And so on until you reach 10.
For younger children, stop at 5.
•Alternatively place a sticker on the Bingo grid below. Shout bingo when you’ve found
them all.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning4
Number and Language Play – Activities for your visit
number and language play
Shape tally
•Keep a tally as you walk around the Museum. Every time you see that shape
place a sticker on the group tally sheet. Can you see any other shapes? Add
them to your tally.
Shape
How many?
Triangle Circle
Rectangle Oval
Square
Make a rainbow – colour hunt
•Challenge your children to find every colour of the rainbow in each gallery.
Counting
•Count the fishes, anemones, hermit crabs and other sea creatures at the
Seashore (Lower Natural History Galleries)
•Read Sharing a Shell, Julia Donaldson.
•How many badgers are there in the woodland?
•What do you think they are doing? Discuss why a home is important.
•Read One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth.
When you’re exploring the animals in the Museum try and make the noise that
each animal makes.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning5
Number and Language Play – Activities for your visit
number and language play
Measuring
•Find the garden birds beside the woodland.
•What’s the biggest bird? What’s the smallest?
•Measure how big the humpback whale is in paces (Upper Natural History
Galleries).
•Look for the dinosaurs in the Evolution of Wales gallery.
•How many dinosaur skeletons can you find? Which is the scariest?
•Find the Apatosaurus thigh bone. Is it bigger than you? Imagine the size of the
dinosaur it belonged to!
•Read Albie the Adventurer – a Dinosaur’s Adventure in the forest, Grace Todd.
Art Scavenger Hunt
•Give your children a list of things they have to find in the art galleries (or
create your own picture list before your visit). The hunt is over when they have
found all the items. Provide younger children with the first five items and older
children with all ten.
A flower
A fruit
A fancy hat
The sea
Something blue
A child
An animal
Stripes
The sun
Snow
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning6
Number and Language Play – Activities for your visit
number and language play
other ideas for during and after your visit
Play I Spy
•This game can be played in all the galleries and is great for learning the
different sounds for phonics.
Make up a silly walk on your visit
•Hop for 3 steps, jump for 2, make small jumps, wiggle… Encourage children to
move in different ways e.g. tiptoe on the tiles, stomp in the dinosaur gallery.
Money maths
•If you visit the shop this can be a chance for some money maths.
Remember
•When you have finished your trip try and remember what you have seen in
sequence, e.g. first we saw the dinosaurs, then we saw…
Make a souvenir
•If you have taken photos/drawn pictures on your visit, make your own picture
booklet about your visit. Help the children write about each picture e.g. we saw
3 badgers.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning7
Number and Language Play – Other ideas for during and after your visit
number and language play
rhymes in the galleries
Some ideas for counting rhymes and songs, don’t forget to add actions!
Mi welais jac y do
Yn eistedd ar ben to
Het wen ar ei ben
a dwy goes bren
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho!
Dau gi bach yn mynd i’r coed,
Esgid newydd am bob troed,
Dau gi bach yn dwad adre
Wedi colli un o’u sgidie,
Dau gi bach
Pum crocodeil yn nofio yn yr afon,
Pum crocodeil yn nofio yn yr afon,
Nofiodd un o dan y dºr, sblash!
Dim ond pedwar sydd ar ôl
Pedwar crocodeil yn nofio yn yr afon…
Tri crocodeil yn nofio yn yr afon…
Hicori dicori doc,
Llygoden lan y cloc,
Mae’n taro tri,
I lawr â hi,
Hicori dicori doc,
Tic toc
Hickory dickory dock,
The mouse ran up the clock,
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory dickory dock
Tick tock
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning8
Number and Language Play – Rhymes in the galleries
number and language play
Clap, clap, un dau tri
Clap, clap, un dau tri
Clap, clap, un dau tri
Troi a throi ein dwylo
Clap, clap, one two three
Clap, clap, one two three
Clap, clap, one two three
Turn and turn your hands
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, once I caught a fish alive
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, then I let it go again
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right
5 little owls in the old oak tree
Fluffy and puffy as owls can be
Then all of them hooted, twit twoo
And one fluffed its wings and off it flew
4 little owls…
3 little owls…
Many thanks to Language and Play for their help and advice in developing these
resources.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning9
Number and Language Play – Rhymes in the galleries
number and language play