Developing strong early numeracy skills is just as important as learning to read. Parents can play an essential role in helping their child build a solid math foundation through hands-on activities at home. Here are some practical, engaging ways to help your child practice number naming, using a 5-frame and 10-frame, and composing and decomposing numbers. These activities can make math fun and interactive, helping your child develop early numeracy skills that will serve as a foundation for more complex math concepts.
- Number Naming: Help your child become familiar with numbers by incorporating number naming into daily activities. Count objects around the house, like toys, snacks, or steps. You can also create number flashcards and ask your child to anime the numbers, or play a number scavenger hunt where they find numbers in books, on signs, or around the home.
- 5-Frame and 10-Frame Activities: A 5-frame or 10-frame is a simple visual tool that helps children understand number relationships. Draw or print a 5-frame (a grid with 5 boxes) or a 10-frame (a grid with 10 boxes) and use small objects like buttons, beads, or cereal pieces. Ask your child to fill the frame with objects, the practice counting how many are in the frame and how many are empty. This helps with number recognition and understanding quantities.
- Composing and Decomposing Numbers: Composing is combining numbers to make a larger number, and decomposing is breaking a number into small parts. For example, with a 10-frame, you can ask your child to fill 6 boxes, then figure out how many more they need to make 10. Practice using two sets of objects, such as 2 red blocks and 3 blue blocks, to show how they make 5 together. Ask questions like, “What two numbers can we add to make 7?”
These activities can make math fun and interactive, helping your child develop early numeracy skills that will serve as a foundation for more complex math concepts.
Mrs. Jennifer Gresser, K-5 MTSS Supervisor
Lehigh Valley Academy RCS 