How many?
Count by eye, then tap the number. Includes a quick dice look.
Games for 5 year olds
Five year olds are getting ready for school. These games practise what the first year asks for: numbers to twenty, first sums and hearing the sounds in words.
What five year olds learn through play
- Adding and taking away within ten, with pictures and a number line.
- Counting to twenty and knowing which number comes next.
- Hearing the first and the last sound in a word.
- Blending sounds into a word: s, u, n is sun.
Games for five year olds
Feed the bunny
Give the bunny exactly as many carrots as it asks for.
Number shapes
Trace each number with a finger.
More or fewer?
Which side has more?
Number train
Put the carriages in order from 1 to 10.
Ten and more
Numbers 11 to 20: count on from ten.
Addition within 10
Put fruit and cats together and say how many in all. With a number line.
Adding and taking away
Let balloons fly away or add more, then count how many there are.
Copy the beat
Listen to the drum, then play it back.
First sound
Hear a sound and find the picture that starts with it.
Rhyming words
Hat and cat sound alike. What else?
Clap the syllables
Ba, na, na: one drum beat for every part.
Blend the sounds
Sss, uh, nnn: what is the word?
Sound memory game
Turn the cards and find two sounds that match.
Last sound
Which sound does the word end with?
Counting rhymes for five year olds
Five balloons
Counting back from five · Ages 3 to 6
Five balloons go up so high,one flies off and waves goodbye!Four balloons go up so high,one flies off and waves goodbye!Three balloons go up so high,one flies off and waves goodbye!Two balloons go up so high,one flies off and waves goodbye!One balloon goes up so high,off it flies and waves goodbye!No balloons are left to see,wave to them with me, with me!
Frogs jump to twenty
From eleven to twenty · Ages 5 to 6
We can all count up to ten,now let’s jump and count again:eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,nineteen, twenty, here we go,splash into the pond below!
The moon peeks through
A counting rhyme to ten · Ages 3 to 6
One, two, the moon peeks through,three, four, a bunny at the door,five, six, the puppy licks,seven, eight, the dew is on the gate,nine, ten, let’s count again!
Games away from the screen
Shop
Play shop with ten buttons. How many are left after you buy two apples?
Robot talk
Say a word sound by sound and let your child guess: sss, uh, nnn.
Numbers on a walk
Read the numbers on houses and say which one comes next.
One sheet a week
Print a maths worksheet and do it together.
How much screen time?
Short games are enough: one or two in a row, then the play goes on away from the screen. Children learn most when an adult plays along and asks what they heard.