What is Early Maths?

"What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns... To grow mathematically children must be exposed to a rich variety of patterns appropriate to their own lives through which they can see variety, regularity, and interconnections."
Lynn Steen, from 'On the Shoulders of Giants: New Approaches to Numeracy'

In this, our latest specialist maths software package, we're attempting to fill a gap in our offerings: catering for both pre-school and infant departments.
Here we combine Number Gym's existing Key Stage 1 activities with 8 brand new Foundation Stage programs, designed by Ian Sugarman, which explore number and pattern through number rods, stick patterns, counters and pattern blocks.
This software has been designed to be used alongside physical sticks, counters and pattern blocks and encourages the use of language to describe and compare number shape and pattern.

Demo Activities

	In this game, players take turns to use the spinner to select a rod that they will place in their box. The winner is the first player to fill their box. Because the rods fill 1, 2 or 3 of the squares, playing this game offers them a chance to develop an intuitive knowledge of the spatial relationships between the rods. e.g. "I've got a line of 3 squares left. I could fill that with one green rod, or with a red rod and a white one, or ..."
When all the cards are correctly placed, children will have demonstrated that they are able to sort according to two criteria - in this case, number and shape. This activity is typically self-correcting i.e. if a card is wrongly placed, when the card that should be placed there comes up, there is a good chance that the issue will be confronted. But if it isn't, when all 16 cards have been placed, and the tick button is clicked, any incorrectly placed cards will be tilted for correction. After this, some cards and even the numerals and animals may be hidden to extend the activity.

Video Demo