In Reception, we use White Rose Maths and other resources to support maths mastery and the children's early maths skills. 

The key activities we are working on are:

• Counting Songs to practise counting forwards and backwards within 5 and to explore the 1 more/1 less relationship between consecutive numbers.
  We sing a variety of nursery rhymes including 1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive, One Big Hippo Balancing, 5 Speckled Frogs and 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. If you would like to practise at home use the link below.
  
  BBC Counting Songs

• Showing and identifying finger numbers to 5.

• Subitising 1, 2, 3 and 4 objects
  This means being able to say how many there are without counting.  We use a range of objects and ask the children, 'What do you see?' and  'How do you see it?'

Playing board games is a great way to practise subitising too! Using dice/ dominoes will help the children to subitise quickly and confidently.

• Composition of numbers 
  We have started to look more closely at numbers up to 5 and how they are made. Using manipulatives (like counters and multilink cubes) and Numberblocks videos have really helped us to see how numbers are made of smaller parts. 
  
  NumberBlocks Episode - The Whole of Me

We are using stem sentences to help us to retain our knowledge.

Eg. Three is made of 2 and 1. 1 and 2 makes 3.

       Three is made of 3 and 0. 0 and 3 makes 3.

• Comparing Size and Mass
  This topic gave us the perfect opportunity to read some books to help us to develop our mathematical vocabulary. We read, 'Dear Zoo' and the traditional tale 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and used words such as small, medium, large, heavy and light.