Number, Counting activities for Year 2 P scale

Hi

I’m a TA working in year 2 and have two children who are working on p scales (P4-P8). I am still doing lots of work with them on number recognition on numbers to 20, one to one counting, ordering numbers, one more/less and have before Christmas began simple addition within 10. Unfortunately in year 2 we don’t have many ‘early years’ resources for the children to do lots of practical learning.

We have access to cubes, counters, Lego, counting dinosaurs/bugs, dice, threading, number cards to order, collage materials (paper, paint etc.)

Any ideas of some practical ways for the children to practice counting skills with the limited resources we have? We’ve used lots of resources off a teaching resource website as well as TES.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

Look at Development matters and skim down the maths to where you need to be, then get some ideas of similar levels and stages before addition and so on.

Also do a google search for 'what to look for when' and you'll get some ideas of what adults can do and what you need in an environment.

If these children aren't totally secure about counting and ordering, then moving on to addition is possibly a bit premature.

 

Thanks. At the moment both children are confident with their numbers to 10, so they’ve just been doing simple addition within 10.

It’s the teen numbers that seem to be taking a while to click, we had hoped by Christmas they would have been confident to 20 but that is something we’ll be continuing to work on.

I have looked through development matters for ideas, but the targets in their P Scales are quite specific. Finding appropriate resources in a year 2 classroom is difficult. With limited funding school can’t afford to buy anything either.

 

You say

, yet I can't think of many more resources than what you've quoted you could need. The only addition I would have is one of those lotto hangings with pockets to put numbers into and a year 2 classroom probably has one. You just cover up numbers past 20. Let the children make their own number cards with dots on one side / words / digit numbers on the reverse to play snap / matching games.

Make your own race-tracks/ snakes and ladders games with numbers up to 20​

Keep reinforcing with lots of other games / rhymes / songs etc

 

When it comes to counting you don't need fancy resources because you can count anything.
Remember that counting also includes things you can't touch like movements, jumps, claps etc. Games involving these are a really good way to know if your children are really confident up to 10.
When you say you are working on teen numbers, can you break it down to what they find difficult? Is it the counting sequence after 10? Is it the recognition? Or keeping the one to one? Is it forgetting part way or not having a counting or grouping strategy? Can they count on from 5? 10? Can they count out 10 from a larger set? Once you really know this, you can find the right activities to match.
Good luck.