Numicon: Bag of Numicon Shapes 1-10

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Numicon is an approach to teaching maths that helps your child to see connections between numbers. From Oxford University Press, it supports your child as they learn early maths skills in nursery and primary school. It is a multi-sensory way of learning, which means your child learns by seeing and feeling. On top of these quite formal activities, you can also teach your child about adding and taking away through conversation, books, play, and songs. My little girl loves singing along to the songs in the Numicon At Home kit and holding up her fingers to count along! We have tried to make these songs part of her bedtime routine to help her get used to counting. Put the smaller shape on top of the bigger shape, and encourage your child to count the difference between the two shapes (i.e. to count the holes in the bigger shape that are not covered).

You can use these printable Counting Numicon Shapes worksheets to familiarise and build knowledge of different patterns and how numbers fit together. The other way to explore subtraction with Numicon is by taking away part of a shape. For example, you could:

Find a Scheme of Work

You can build on this by taking away larger numbers (for example, holding your finger over two holes) when your child is confident with the process of taking away 1. If you’re looking for a primary maths programme that will work for children of every ability, Numicon offers a wealth of resources that can be used across EYFS, KS1, KS2, and to bridge the gap to KS3. Ask your child to find the shape that matches the pattern that is left. For example, if the original shape had a value of 6 and you held your finger over a hole, your child would need to find a shape with a value of 5. Can be used flexibly alongside your existing resources, as a complete maths programme or to encourage mastery

My first activity to introduce subtraction involved using a ‘feely bag’ (an big bag that you can’t see through). As with addition, it helps if your child is already familiar with Numicon shapes when you introduce the idea of subtraction because otherwise the activity might seem a bit confusing.

This activity helps your child see that numbers can be made up of multiple smaller numbers, and will give them a go at adding different numbers together to get a total. 2. Number bonds Have fun with your child by playing the games in this kit together and help them to thrive at the maths they’re learning in school. Designed to work both brilliantly on its own and as a natural progression from the First Steps Kit, the activities and apparatus here will build your child’s understanding of numbers to 100 and their ability to use and talk about them with confidence. Based on a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach, Numicon uses structured imagery and apparatus to help children explore and understand mathematical concepts.