Christmas challenge – Day 4

Four chimneys to climb – counting games

Game 1:

This is a simple game to give young children practice in counting. The game gives you the opportunity to talk about counting and assess children’s thinking. How does the child count the dots on the dice – count in ones or recognise the number of dots without counting? Can the child say the number on the dice and then count that number of counters accurately?

You need to make game boards with it 4 “chimneys” for each child.

(Download boards English in colour, English black and white, Welsh colour, Welsh black and white and make the board so that the chimneys have 12 spaces).

How to play: Children have a board each and take turns to throw the 1 – 6 dice and collect the correct number of counters. They then place the counters on one of the chimneys – their choice, but all the counters for that turn have to go on the same chimney. The object is to fill all the chimneys with counters. You have to roll the correct number to finish filling any chimney.

Ask:

How do you know you’ve got the right number of counters to match your roll on the dice?

How many counters did you put on the chimney?

How many more counters do you need to fill the chimney?

Which chimney has most counters? Least counters?

Game 2:

For an easier game play with boards that have 10 spaces and a dice with numbers 1 – 3. Either play with counters in the same way as Game 1 or make links with the Numicon® shapes. Pick up Numicon® shapes instead of counters and place on the chimneys.

Game boards  – 10 colour, 10 black and white.

Game 3:

This game is for children who are ready to practise exchanging ones for tens.You need a board for each child, Base 10 resources and a dice.

Game boards: English, Welsh

How to play: Children have a board each and take turns to throw the dice. The number they roll indicates how many “ones” they count and place on the first chimney. When they have 10 “ones”, they exchange them for one “ten” and put that on the chimney. Continue until they have 10 tens. When they have 10 tens they exchange this for one “hundred” and collect a present.