Activity 0059 by Louise Travis Subject Area: Mathematics Project: Number games Age Range: 5-7
Paint a brightly coloured number on the front of the Tabard and a carriage window on the reverse. When the Tabards
are dry the children can put them on.
Can we put the carriages in order to make a long train?
Is everyone in the right place? Let’s check by calling out our carriage number, starting with the person at
the front of the train.
Does anyone need to change places or are we all in numerical order?
Explain to the children that some of the carriages need to be moved to different parts of the station to go on different
journeys, so we need to listen carefully and think about the numbers of our carriage.
Carriages whose numbers are bigger than 21 are needed to go on a journey to ‘Biggeridge’.
If the number of your carriage is bigger than 21, go to the back of the station and stand in a line.
Can you stand in order from the smallest to the biggest number?
[Teacher indicates whereabouts the children need to move to.]
Are the carriages with a number bigger than 21, all here? Can you see any carriages whose
numbers are not bigger than 21 here? Do we need to move any carriages? [If so] Why?
This is then repeated with carriages needed to go to ‘Lesserton’ and ‘Equal–to’. Carriages less than or equal to a number specified by the teacher are told whereabouts to stand in line.
Now that the trains are in the correct part of the station they can begin their journey. Move around the space
in a line, keeping the carriages of your train together. How many carriages are on your train today?
Meeting curriculum requirements:
The children will be learning to recite number names in order and count reliably a set of objects. They will be given
the opportunity to describe and extend number sequences. They will be encouraged to use the vocabulary of
comparing and ordering numbers, including ordinal numbers; they will be comparing two given numbers saying
which is more or less or equal.
Tips for Painting:
Paint the numbers and carriage windows boldly and in bright colours
Useful Reference:
Find posters and pictures of trains. Read The Train Ride by June Crebbin. Listen to the sound of a train
or trains at a station, on a ‘Transport sounds’ CD.
What you will need:
What you will need: Tabards, brushes, paints or water based markers, small toy train with
numbered carriages.
Linking Activities: You may like to have a look at:
