Create a Number Line 1 to 20 is a fun hands-on number awareness activity that involves recognising and organising numerals 1 to 20. It is just the beginning of spring here and I thought it would be fun to make our number line into a fun flower garden theme.
The activity provides children with the opportunity to un-jumble the numbered pop stick flowers and arrange them in order from 1 to 20 into some play dough rolled out into a line. Children can also play games such as ‘Fill in the Missing Number’ counting forwards and backwards and guess the missing number.
What you will need?
You will need 20 craft sticks (pop sticks), play dough, miniature cupcake liners, large sticker dots, black marker pen, and glue. I used the hot glue gun to stick on the cupcake liners but PVA craft glue will work just as well once it has dried.
We numbered the sticker dots and placed them inside the cupcake liner to make them look more like flowers.
Let’s Play
Some Ideas:
- Talk about the shapes of the numbers such as number 9 has a circle and a line or number 8 has two circles. Children begin to associate shape and the name of the number. We have Number Rhyme Charts that could be used to assist with this activity <click here>
- Use a number line chart if needed for guidance.
- Read stories about numbers.
- For younger children, complete this activity using only numbers 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 and add more as your child develops.
- For older children this can be useful for skip counting by 2s or 5s.
Let’s Learn
To extend the learning after the number line 1 to 20 was finished, we removed some of the numbers from the number line. The task involved counting along the line and to fill in the missing numbers.
We also played another fun game called “Guess the Missing Number”. My daughter covered her eyes and I removed a number along the number line. When she opened her eyes again, she had to guess which number was missing. So much fun!!
Don’t forget to count the numbers out loud!! Pointing at the numbers and counting out loud is beneficial for self-correction and consolidating number recognition. Children can practice counting forwards and backwards from 1 to 20 and 20 to 1. Smaller numbers for younger children 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 and backwards from 10 to 1.
Learning Opportunities
- Fine Motor Development – manipulating objects.
- Hand-eye Coordination and Control
- Concentration
- Language development – Counting our loud and pronunciation of numbers.
- Mathematics – Number recognition and ordering numbers 1 to 20.
Take a look at our Dot-to-Dot Number Rhyming Charts. These are a fun way to learn how to write and recognise numbers by singing a catching rhyme.
Click here for more NUMBER activities & play ideas
