Rote Counting Activities

Counting skills are essential to nursery children. Starting with the number 1, you say the number out loud and clap at the same time, then say and clap the next number in the sequence aloud. Repeat this up to 10 or 20 (whichever your child is more comfortable with). At home, you can count claps, jumps, kicks, hops or pats on your head to encourage rote counting (1-10/20).

Children enjoy taking on different roles and using funny character voices so why not try and rote count using different voices? A deep voice, a scary voice, a squeaky voice or a ghost voice!

1:1 Touch Counting

1:1 touch counting involves the act of counting aloud each object in a set once, with only one touch per object. This is a complex skill for nursery children. Sometimes they can count too quickly, so encourage your child/children to count slowly ensuring they are using their pointy finger and touching each object one at a time. At home you can use duplo, blocks, dolls or cars to practice 1:1 touch counting. You could also take a toy, for example 5 lego blocks, put them in a container and ask your child to shake and spill them onto a table or mat. Then encourage your child to count the blocks each time they are spilled onto the table using their fingers to touch each object as they count. You could do this with a variety of toys and with different numbers from 1-10/20 (depending on your child’s ability).