Number Hunting

I’m always amazed at the observation skills of my children.  Rowan in particular can just sense when there is a train in the vicinity, be it a real train, train themed play equipment or a toy!  These keen observation skills mean that little ones are always learning and picking up new information just simply by watching what is going on around them.  One of my favourite facts from my lectures at university, all those years ago, was that one of the first words children learn to read is McDonalds because they recognise the golden arches and associate it with the restaurant but learning to read through environmental print is a blog for another day.  Today, I want to talk about the numbers we can find all around us.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while then you’ll know that our family are very keen on hunting for things, as are many of you!  (Do feel free to check out our Nature Scavenger Hunt & Seaside Scavenger Hunt)
With all the numbers that we are surrounded by in our day to day lives, they are a great thing to hunt for.  Rowan and I particularly enjoy number hunting on the school run when we have just dropped off his big brother, or on the way to pick him up.  It’s a great activity to do because you don’t really need any resources to do it.  You just simply look around and see what number you can see.  This is a great game for building up recognition of numbers and as your child grows in confidence talking about reading bigger numbers.  It’s also great for building up those observation skills too.

You can start out by showing your child where to spot numbers when you’re out and about.  We started off by looking at the house numbers as we walk along and having conversations such as ‘I can see 7 on this house.  Can you see what number is on the next house?’ Before long, your little one will be telling you where they can see numbers and this can strike up some great conversations. House numbers are particularly great because they tend to go in a patterns so when your child is quite confident with counting, they might be able to guess what the next house number will be.

The other day, a man walked passed us with a sports top on and on the back it had a big 72.  Rowan squealed with excitement and said ’27. That man has a 27 on him’ Thankfully the man didn’t seem to be too bothered by our examination of his attire and it was a great opportunity to talk about why it was 72 and not 27.  At the moment, Rowan can only confidently count to 25 (and that’s thanks to an episode of Team Umizoomi) so whilst he definitely won’t understand that it’s 72 because the 7 is in the tens column and the 2 is in the ones column, it does introduce the idea that we read numbers from left to right and so this number is 72.  Previously, I discussed that children need to learn the concepts of reading and that’s why they start out with books with no words, (you can find out more about that here) just the same children need to learn all about how to read numbers and later they will then be able to build on these skills and develop a knowledge of place value.

Although this activity is great as an ad hoc game to play, you can also be a little more formal with it.  You can dress up as a Number Detective and see what numbers you can find.  We love any excuse to look important and use a clipboard.  It’s also fun to dig out a magnifying glass to add to the detective attire! This is then a great way to record the numbers you have found on your number hunt.  We use a simple grid to record our numbers.  You can download that at the bottom of the post.  Your child can then decide how they want to record what they have seen.  They might like to stick a sticker in the box or use stamper pens each time they see a number,  or they might like to have a go at copying the number.  Older children who are more confident with recognising and writing numbers might want to write down all the numbers they spot.  It’s really great for children to choose how they wish to record what they find out as this is something they will be asked to do at school.  However, if you have a littler one, you may wish to guide them.  We like to buy a packet of star stickers (they’re about 50p for 100 stars) and stick a star in the box each time we see a number.

Whilst this a great way to work on those basic mathematics skills, its also a really fun activity.  It really is so important that children think that Maths is fun from an early age rather than something to be hated or dreaded!  If you have a go at Number Hunting, I’d love to see so do tag me in your photos.  You can find Tired But Crafty Mummy on Instagram and Twitter.

Here is the printable grid we use when playing Number Detectives:
Number Hunting