10 Things to do with a Number Line

 

Number Lines can be fun. Its a great way to reinforce the number concept. I have compiled a list of things that can be done with a number line.

1. Separate the tiles, have your child put them back in order. Extend the numbers according to the child’s ability.

2. Lay out a row of consecutive tiles, but remove one or two of the tiles, then have your child tell the numbers that are missing. You can either leave a space where the number is missing, and to make it more challenging don’t leave a space.

3. Make number patterns (sequence) and let your child guess what comes next.

4. Randomly choose two tiles from the Number Line, and let your child tell which number is greater/smaller. Gradually introduce less than/more than sign. I like make little teeth on the sign, and make up a story about a croc wanting to eat bigger numbers.

5. Give your child few random tiles and let him/her put them in order.

6. Give your child a large stack of tiles and let him/her separate the tiles into decades (all the 20's together, all the 50's together, etc.)

7. Introduce addition, subtraction etc by letting your child jump on the relevant tiles.

8. Once your child is able to do some addition and subtraction on his'/her own, challenge them with this game. With a stop watch turned on, you start saying simple number operations, like 2+4=?, say each number rather slowly so the player can jump to that number, let them jump on the answering tile. See how much time does it take for them to do for example 10 operation-jumps. As the kids get more proficient at it increase the speed and compare with previous records or the record of another sibling.

9. Make number stories, let your children play the part. Alternatively let your child make the story and you play the part. For example, Marium is walking in a number line lane, She stops by house number 4, says salams to the aunty living in there, and then goes back to her walking, when she reaches house number 10 she feels hungry, but where is the snack box? oh no, she dropped it at number 4. How many steps will she need to go back?
(You can see from my story that one don’t need to be too creative in order to make stories :) )

10. Practice skip counting, for smaller numbers let your child jump from number to number. For larger numbers, let them run and stop.

There are lots of foam and rubber number tiles available quite cheap (at least here in Johannesburg) but if you cant find them you can simply make your own by writing large numerals on paper. (If using paper, don’t let your child jump and run on them as they may slip)