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 children’s ability to count forward and backward.

You need:

  • Nothing

Activity:

This activity starts with partners facing each other. Each person slaps their legs using both hands then claps the following counting patterns.

  • Clap one – slap the legs
  • Clap one, two – slap the legs
  • Clap one, two, three – slap the legs
  • Clap one, two, three, four – slap the legs
  • Clap one, two, three, four, five – slap the legs

The counting is then reversed.

  • Clap one, two, three, four, five – slap the legs
  • Clap one, two, three, four – slap the legs
  • Clap one, two, three – slap the legs
  • Clap one – slap the legs

Variations:

  • Count forward and backwards in your home language.
  • Instead of counting in ones, partners can develop the idea of skip counting to support their multiplication tables, for example clapping the sequence and counting up in 5’s, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and then reversing.
  • Counting could start at 95 and go over the 100 to 105. The clap and count sequence would then be 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103 etc., and then reversing.

Download a file of this activity:

PDF (8KB) or Word (30KB)