Homeschool Number Fun

Sofi and I have been doing some really fun number activities for school lately, and I wanted to share.

Numbered squares have a lot of possibility for learning math

First, I used construction paper and cut out 1.5" by 1.5" squares.  I used a crayon and numbered the squares.  I used one color for 1 - 25, another for 26 - 50, etc.  Then, I started thinking of what we could do with these numbers!

The obvious was to put them in chronological order.  Mixing them up first let her practice number recognition while ordering them.  But there are many other creative ways we came up with to use them!

1. Line them up in 2s, 3s, 4s, or 5s and skip count - as pictured.

2. Order them backwards.

3. Figure out how many sets of X you can make with 25, 50, etc.

4. Put odd numbers in one row and evens in another.

5. Draw random numbers and play "which number comes next?"

6. Sort them into piles by their tens.

We started with 1-25, then did another 25, and so on.  We've been playing games with these squares for a few weeks now.  They've really helped Sofi to grasp the one to one quality of the numbers as well as to visually see how addition, skip counting and tens work.  This is setting up the basis off the math processes, which we will be starting in the morning!

What other games can you come up with for the number squares?