Foundation Stage Activities
Click on any of these games to help get the most out of your Handy
Homework Maths Packs and HAVE FUN! (see videos for extra help)
Page 2
Dice Game 1
matching quantities and numbers
Page 3
Dice Game 2
matching quantities and numbers part 2
Page 4
Dice Game 3
knowing 1 more or 1 less
Page 5
Partitioning Tree Game 1
missing amounts from small numbers
Page 6
Partitioning Tree Game 2
number bonds up to 10
Page 7
Partitioning Tree Game 3
number bonds up to 10 and recognising quantities
Page 8
Partitioning Tree Game 4
number bonds up to 10 and recognising quantities
Page 9
Number Beads Game 1
number order and + or— 1
Page 10
Number Beads Game 2
number order and + or— up to 10
Page 11
Number Beads Game 3
Place value and making numbers
Page 12
Number Beads Game 4
Place value and + or—numbers up to 20
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Game 1
Dice
Number Match
What are we trying to do? To help children recognise a quantity (amount) and match it to a numeral
(written number).
How can we learn that?
Roll one die.
Look at the array (number of dots). E.g.
“What number have we rolled?” 2
“Can you find the number 2 on our card?”
Encourage child to point to the numeral 2 and show how it matches with the array for 2.
Have another go!
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Game 2
Dice
Number Match
What are we trying to do? To help children recognise a quantity (amount) and match it to a numeral
(written number).
How can we learn that?
Look at the array card and choose a number e.g. 3
Look at the array for 3.
“Who can roll a 3 first?” (if playing with a partner) or “How many rolls until we get a 3? “ (if playing on
own).
Have another go with a different number.
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Game 3
Dice
Number Match
What are we trying to do? To help children to feel very confident with number order, knowing one more
or one less than a given number.
How can we learn that?
Roll a die
“What number have we rolled?” e.g. 3
“What is one more / one less?” E.g. 4 / 2
Can they find the numbers on the card just by looking at the arrays?
Have another go!
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Game 1
Partitioning Tree
Missing Numbers
What are we trying to do? To help children work out a missing amount from small numbers e.g. 2 or 3.
How can we learn that?
Start with 2 ‘apples’ in the tree.
“How many can we see?” answer 2
Shake the tree and look at the side with just one column. “How many ‘apples’ can we see now?” Child
will answer.
“Are there any missing?”,, then “How many are missing?”
Turn the tree around to the side with 2 columns and count the ‘apples’. “Fantastic! Let’s try again”.
Repeat until confident then add another ‘apple’.
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Game 2
Partitioning Tree
Missing Numbers
What are we trying to do? To help children work out a missing amount from numbers up to 10 and to
learn number bonds (pairs of numbers which make an amount) up to 10 e.g. for 3 the number bonds
are 0 and 3, 1 and 2. For 5 they are 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3. For 10 they are 10 and 0, 9 and 1, 8 and
2, 7 and 3, 6 and 4 and 5 and 5.
How can we learn that?
Once confident with smaller numbers, add more ‘apples’ (getting up to 10 once really confident).
Look in tree and ask “How many can we see in total?”
Shake the tree and look at the side with just one column. “How many ‘apples’ can we see now?” Child
will answer.
“Are there any missing?”,, then “How many are missing?”
Turn the tree around to the side with 2 columns and count the ‘apples’. “Fantastic! Let’s try again”.
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Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.
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Game 3
Partitioning Tree
Missing Numbers
What are we trying to do? To help children work out a missing amount from numbers up to 10 and to
learn number bonds (pairs of numbers which make an amount) up to 10 e.g. for 3 the number bonds
are 0 and 3, 1 and 2. For 5 they are 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3. For 10 they are 10 and 0, 9 and 1, 8 and 2,
7 and 3, 6 and 4 and 5 and 5.
How can we learn that?
Repeat the steps for game 2 but this time and see if your child can know the missing amount without
needing to ‘count on’. E.g. if the number of ‘apples’ they can see is 6, do they know the missing amount
must be 4 or do they have to count on using their fingers?
Repeat until your child starts to remember the number bonds that make 10 e.g. ‘I can see 6 so there
must be 4 missing because 6 and 4 make 10’.
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Game 4
Partitioning Tree
Missing Numbers
What are we trying to do? To help children work out a missing amount from numbers up to 10 and to
learn number bonds (pairs of numbers which make an amount) up to 10 e.g. for 3 the number bonds
are 0 and 3, 1 and 2. For 5 they are 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3. For 10 they are 10 and 0, 9 and 1, 8 and 2,
7 and 3, 6 and 4 and 5 and 5.
How can we learn that?
Repeat the steps for game 2 and 3 but this time see if your child can recognise the number of ‘apples’
without counting them. This means knowing the number just by looking at the amount of ‘apples’ as we
do when we use dice with dots e.g. “I can see 5 apples”.
Being able to recognise an amount without actually counting the objects is a helpful way to boost
children’s confidence with numbers.
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Game 1
Number Beads
Number work to 10
What are we trying to do? To help children know number order and to carry out simple calculations by
adding or taking away one.
How can we learn that?
Ask your child to make 3 beads on the string.
Then add one more.
“How many have we got now?” Can they answer without having to count from the start e.g. 1,2,3,4. If
not, then encourage them by saying “We had 3 and now we have one more so what is one more than 3?”
answer 4.
Try ‘one less’ and once they are confident move onto other numbers e.g. 5 or 8 and then add / take
away one.
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Game 2
Number Beads
Number work to 10
What are we trying to do? To help children carry out simple calculations (adding and taking away) up to
10.
How can we learn that?
Start with a small number of beads e.g. 4. Ask your child to add 3 more beads. “How many have we got
now?” They may count from the start e.g. 1,2,3, 4,5,6,7 so, as in game 1, encourage them to start from
the 4 and ‘count on’.
Repeat with different numbers but only with a total up to 10 to start with.
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Game 3
Number Beads
Number work to 20
What are we trying to do? To help children recognise that there are 10 red beads and 10 white beads
and that we can use this to help us make numbers. (This is quite an advanced concept for foundation
stage and will be covered properly in KS1 when they learn about tens and units).
How can we learn that?
Lay out the whole number bead and ask the children what colour the beads are. Do they know how
many are red and how many are white? Count them together. 10 of each.
Ask “Can you make 11 beads?” If they start from 1, 2, 3 etc.. Remind them that 10 are red so if we add
one more that makes 11.
“Can we make 12 beads?” Start again from 10 and count on to 11 and then 12 and show them that 12 is
made up of 10 red beads and 2 white beads.
Repeat with other numbers up to 20.
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Game 4
Number Beads
Number work to 20
What are we trying to do? To help children carry out simple calculations (adding and taking away) up to
20.
How can we learn that?
Start with a number of beads e.g. 8. Ask your child to add 4 more beads. “How many have we got now?”
They may count from the start e.g. 1,2,3, 4,5,6,7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 so, as in game 1, encourage them to do
two things:
1.) Start from the 8 and ‘count on’ to 12.
2.) Look at the number of beads and recognise that there are 10 and 2 (as in game 3) and that 10 and 2
makes 12. This is quite a big jump for children to make at first so don’t worry if they still prefer to count
on.
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