Hide some shapes in the environment. You could use 2D shapes or you could mix 2D and 3D shapes Give the child a bag or bucket to collect shapes. Challenge the child to find as many shapes as they can. When they have finished collecting count how many they have, sort them into different shapes and name the shapes. If using 3D shapes can your child distinguish between 2D and 3D?

Objective: To recognise and name different shapes. To distinguish between 2D and 3D shapes.

Challenge 1

Find a milk bottle top and a couple of other lids of different sizes.

Now use small objects such as beads, pompoms, dried peas or pasta.

Find out how many you can put in the lids in a given time. You can use timers for this or just count up or down. Also find out which lid holds the most and which the least.

Objective: To understand the concepts of more and less and time.

Maths

Challenge 1- Play a counting on board game such as snakes and ladders or Ludo

Objective: To recognise number patterns on a dice and develop counting skills.

Challenge 2 - Number washing line, Set up a small washing line at child height and peg on the numbers 1 to 5, 10 or 20 in order. Ask the child to shut their eyes and remove one of the numbers can they tell which number is missing. Repeat this a number of times then muddle up the numbers before removing the number can they still work out which number is missing? You may need to go to 1 to 5 or 10 for this.

Objective: To develop counting skills and number recognition.