1. Maths in the Early Years Foundation Stage

2. Children will begin to:
Maths through play
Young children are learning maths all the time through a wide variety of play experiences.
Maths will be taught in a purposeful, practical way and children will use play and exploration to acquire mathematical skills. A large majority of mathematical work is practical and learning will happen in many different contexts around the classroom and outside.
 Some whole class work exploring mathematical concepts will be teacher led and children can also freely explore these concepts through a variety of different activities and resources set up each day.
Children will begin to:
• know and understand early maths language of measurement, shapes, spaces, positions, early numbers, order and patterns
• know the sequence of numbers
• begin to understand positional words, e.g. in, on, outside
• show an awareness of time
• be aware of shapes in their environment
• be aware of 1-to-1 correspondence
• acquire new vocabulary
• learn number rhymes and songs, e.g. one, two, buckle my shoe etc.

3. Learning Skills for Maths
Should focus on children:
making decisions
solving problems
developing thinking processes
developing effective communication
developing collaboration strategies
developing positive dispositions towards learning

4. Nursery Expectations
Overview of development expectations in number, shape, space and measure for the end of Nursery
Children in Nursery are still in the early stages of their development and clearly develop at different rates within different areas. For this reason the curriculum provides guidance around the overlapping age bands months and months. See the sheet in your pack detailing these expectations.

5. Reception maths areas

6. Reception maths areas

7. Reception maths areas

8. Reception maths areas

9. Reception Expectations
Development expectations in number for the end of Reception are:
Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number.
 Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer.
They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.

10. Reception Expectations
Development expectations in shape, space and measure for the end of Reception are
Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems.
They recognise, create and describe patterns.
They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.
Note – assessment of all the end of EYFS expectations is mainly done through close observations of the children in their independent tasks. The maths elements are part of the governments expectations for reception children to reach a ‘good’ level of learning before moving into year 1. At target setting meetings staff will talk to you about your child’s progress towards this ‘good’ level and where you can focus your support at home.

11. Year 1 Expectations
Current Year 1 are the first year group to be assessed against the new National Curriculum.
We have included a sheet of the year 1 expectations in your pack.
The new curriculum does not use levels to give you assessment information. The children are expected to work within the expectations of their year group and when they have grasped a basic understanding of the concepts they are expected to deepen their knowledge and apply their knowledge to a wide variety of problem solving situations.

12. Maths at home
Parents can support children with many mathematical experiences in their home environment. For example:
• learn about money as they go shopping with parents
• become aware of numbers as they count the stairs to bed
• start to understand the concept of time as they become familiar with the routine of their day – wash, dress, breakfast etc.
• use mathematical language such as – heavy, light, empty, full, long, short,
big, small in relevant contexts
• Look at your home environment to develop language, especially positional words – small object
in front of big object, behind, in, on
• Simple activities like letting your child set the table for dinner can help develop counting skills,
e.g. getting out three pieces of cutlery.
• Involve your child with household activities. After washing, allow your child to sort clothes into
different colours, or different types of clothes, e.g. t-shirts and socks. This will help to develop a
child’s knowledge of shapes and colours.