Activities for Children
We've got loads of activities and ideas to help parents, carers and teachers build their children's confidence with numbers.
You can access some quick ideas from the three pages below for ages under 5-13, or for dozens of downloadable resources sign-up for free to the Family Maths Toolkit.
5 years old and younger
At this age, children are beginning to:
- Learn about basic measurement, shapes, spaces, positions, numbers, order and patterns
- Understand the sequence of numbers
- Understand positional words such as in, on, outside and under
- Develop an awareness of time
- Learn number rhymes and songs
6-9 year olds
At this age, children are learning to:
- Explain why they think something is correct
- Count up to 100 and put numbers up to 100 in the correct order
- Add and subtract
- Recognise odd and even numbers
- Name 2D and 3D shapes
- Measure the lengths and weights of objects
- Put events in the correct order – for example, giving instructions for a familiar journey
- Collect information to work out answers to questions – for example, how do people travel to school?
10-13 year-olds
At this age, children are learning to:
- Try different approaches when solving problems
- Break down problems into smaller, more manageable tasks
- Use mathematical language and symbols
- Convert between fractions, decimals and percentages
- Investigate and explain number patterns by drawing graphs and charts
- Calculate probability – for example, the probability of getting a head and a tail when tossing two coins
Family Maths Toolkit
Families and children can explore maths together with these activity worksheets created by National Numeracy.
These short, fun activities for children aged 4 to 16 are free to download and are suitable for schools or families to use.
