Loose Parts Jars

This is an easy maths activity to try at home, which can be easily adapted to children of a range of ages. Loose parts are great for playing with and make great counters for a range of maths activities. These colourful loose parts are from one of our monthly activity boxes, but you could easily make your own with what you have at home.

Set Up

I used the colourful loose parts from our Helping the Colour Monster activity and some wood slices which I wrote some numbers on and that was it.

So the first task was to find out how many were in each jar to see if the jars matched the numbers on the wood slices. M instinctively tipped each jar out one at a time and then counted the loose parts back in. The number of loose parts could easily be suit a range of abilities. We also then began trying to estimate the number in each jar too. Once she knew how many was in a jar she lined the jars up behind the corresponding wood slice.

I purposely had added wood slices with numbers on that did not match the jar and I challenged M to change the number of objects in the jar to match the wood slices. First she began to remove some of the loose parts from one of the jars to make a smaller number. We still had the number 15 wood slice with no matching jar so I challenged M to transform one of the jars so that it would match number 15. So off we went into the garden to pick some yellow flowers to add to the jar. We continued to play with the jars, I would either add or take away loose parts from one of the jars and M would work out the answer. This was a great practical maths activity that involved a challenge for M which she had to decide how to work out.