Numbers - Explorers - Number Walk 

All the activities below involve going for a walk with a special focus on numbers and counting. Don't forget to share what you get up to with your child's class teacher. 

Touch and feel numbers

Go for a local walk and collect up any resources that are interesting to touch like leaves, twigs, acorns etc When you get home, print out a large number template from the document list below and stick your items over the number. You have created a touch and feel number! Support your child to touch the number and trace their finger over it in the shape you would write it down. Say the number as you play with it.

Count your moves

While out on your walk, see how far you travel if you take 10 steps. How about if you do ten jumps? You could count claps as you walk along or skips. Can you move slowly while counting? Can you move quickly and still count to ten?! If the weather is wet, can you count ten jumps in a puddle? Don’t forget your wellies!

You can watch Megan going for a walk and counting her moves in the video below.

We’re going on a number hunt!

In this activity, you’re going to hunt for digits in your local neighbourhood. You can either use the tick sheet provided to help you find one of each digit or the recording sheet to do a longer hunt to find as many of each digit as you can! Remember to print off the sheet you’ll use before you leave home and take a pencil with you. You could also take photos of the digits you find to share with your child’s class teacher.

The digits 0-9 make up all the numbers we use. 15 is a two-digit number that uses the digits 1 and 5. 324 is a 3-digit number using the digits 3, 2 and 4. Your child may not be ready to distinguish between the terms digit and number so you don’t need to worry about that. Just remember that, in your number hunt, you are really hunting for digits. So if you live at number 64 you'll have found the digits 6 and 4 as soon as you walk outside your house! 

Clodagh has been hunting for digits in her neighbourhood too. Here are some photos of what she found... 

Counting in your neighbourhood

In this activity, you’re going to use your counting skills to explore the front of some houses in your neighbourhood. You’ll need to write down some numbers on your walk so, before you leave home, start by practising them using the number formation sheets in the document list below.

You will need to print the worksheet ‘House counting’ from the document list below. Start by picking one house you can see (it might even be your house!) – take a picture of it or draw it yourself. Count the different parts of the house to answer the questions on your sheet.

Next, take a walk around your neighbourhood and find five more houses. Count the number of doors, windows and chimneys you can see from the front of the house and record them on your worksheet. 

You can watch the video below to help you see how to count the parts of the houses you see on your walk...