The Ministry is migrating nzmaths content to Tāhurangi.           
Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
e-ako maths, e-ako Pāngarau, and e-ako PLD 360 will continue to be available. 

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

Purpose:

  • To develop the children’s understanding of estimation skills and counting.

You need:

  • Paper bag containing a collection of up to 10 plastic bottle tops.

Activity:

  • Count the bottle tops with your child as you place them one at a time into the bag.
  • Ask your child to put their hand in the bag and ‘grab’ a handful of the tops.
  • Ask them to ‘guess’ how many they think they have collected.
  • Then ask them to show them to you and together count how many they have.
  • Repeat as often as you like.

Variations:

  • Try collecting two handfuls and checking how many by counting the two groups together.
  • You could use more bottle tops.
  • Remember to guess first and then check by counting or adding together.
  • You could put numbers on each bottle drop and get the child to pick out one in each hand and add the two numbers together.

Download a file of this activity:

PDF (8KB) or Word (25KB)