To encourage kids to keep practising their addition and subtraction skills, it’s essential to have a bank of fun and engaging activities to keep them interested!. Here are a few activities I’ve tried and had success with, both in the classroom and at home with my own little learners:

• Collect and Count

Have your learners go around and collect some objects, counting them once they’re finished collecting. Then have them add or take away items and talk through what they’re doing. 

• Maths Stories

Challenge your little ones to come up with their own fun maths stories. They could be real or made-up scenarios (e.g. “We made 8 cakes and ate 3…”), but they must work out the correct answer for the end of the story either on their own or together as a group. 

• Number Line Jumps

Create a number line on the floor or out on the playground and let your kiddos physically hop forwards and backwards as they complete addition and subtraction problems. 

• Dice Games

In pairs or groups, have learners roll two dice and either add or subtract the numbers (whichever is your focus). The winner is the child with the highest or lowest number. 

• Dominoes

Similar to above, use dominoes and have your kids add or subtract the number of dots. Turn it into a game by playing in teams or pairs, with the highest/lowest number winning. 

• Shop Role Play

Add some simple price tags to toys in your playroom or classroom and let Year 1 learners play shop! Learners pick up two toys, then add up the cost using their addition skills. They can then pay with either 10p or 20p and work out how much change they’ll get using their subtraction skills.

• Songs and rhymes

There are plenty of addition and subtraction songs and rhymes to take your pick from to support recall and reinforce key concepts. My  own son’s favourite is Danny Go’s “Math Whiz!” Addition Song, and we frequently return to this list of maths songs from Songs for Teaching!

• Correct the Teacher

Every child’s favourite game is the one where they get to be right and correct the adult! Write a few addition and subtraction questions down, complete with answers, but get some of the answers wrong. Then task your learners with checking your work and making any corrections.

• DoodleLearning Maths app

Educational games and apps are hard to beat for an easy-win revision session – kids love playing games on their devices, and parents love it when their kids are learning! That’s where our fantastic DoodleLearning maths app comes in. 

The app tailors tasks and gameplay to each learner’s progress, meaning learners’ practice is focused on the areas they need it most. Parents and teachers can use the adult dashboard to assign specific tasks and monitor progress, too! What’s not to love?

Exciting, hands-on activities are so important for engaging our little learners and making the concepts come alive. We’ve gathered a list of our favourite Year 1 place value activities for you to try out with your own students, either at home or in the classroom:

Number Line Hop

Create a number line on the floor or outside in the playground and call out a number for your kiddos to jump on. You can then call out instructions like “Go to a bigger number”, “Go to the number before 5”, or “Go to the smallest number”. 

Mystery Number game

Think of a number, then give your learners clues so they can work out what your number is. E.g. “I’m thinking of a number greater than 14, but less than 18.” Turn it into a class game by giving everyone a number line and having them place a counter on their number guess. 

Compare the Cards

Show two number cards to your learners, then ask them to compare the numbers and decide which is largest and which is smallest. 

One More, One Less stations

Set up stations with challenges like this one, where learners must find one more and one less of given numbers. Hands-on activities are best, so try to use materials that link to a class topic, or use toys to engage the kiddos with learning. 

Number Card Sorting

Give your learners some number cards and challenge them to compare and organise the cards. They can first organise from biggest to smallest, then smallest to biggest, then sort them into groups, e.g. greater than 10, less than 10. 

100 Square Treasure Hunt

Give learners a 100 square and then call out clues like:

• “Find a number that is one more than 37.”
• “Circle a number that is less than 30.”
• “Colour the number between 58 and 60 blue.”

Not only is this activity great for reinforcing place value learning, but it’s also an excellent listening task as kiddos must listen to and follow your instructions each time!

Build the Number

Use Duplo, LEGO, or any other buildable blocks for this activity. Call out a number, or set up stations with number cards, and have your kiddos build something using that number of bricks. It’s a fun and creative way to reinforce number representation and counting!

Human Number Line

Start by giving your students number cards and ask them to get in order across the room. Once everyone is lined up in the correct position, call out questions like: 

• “Who is greater than 15?”
• “Who is less than 8?”
• “Who is between 11 and 13?”

The children who have numbers that apply to each statement can step forward, and the rest of the class can say if they’re correct or not. This activity is great as a brain break and is super engaging for everyone!

Number Word Match

This game is played like a game of ‘memory’, except that matching pairs are matching numerals and written numbers, e.g. 13 and thirteen.  Have your learners play in pairs and lay out all the cards face down, and then let them take turns to turn over two cards to find a match. The player with the most correctly matched pairs wins!

Number of the Day

Number of the Day is a simple yet effective activity you can use either in class or at home. Simply pick and share your number of the day with learners, then explore it in different ways. For example:  

• Write it as numerals
• Write it in words
• Represent it with objects
• Find one more and one less
• Count forward and backwards from it
• Decide if it is more or less than 50

Building this into your learners’ daily routine will make them more familiar with the number system, help them recognise patterns and develop their ability to compare and reason mathematically.

Doodle Maths app

Our DoodleLearning maths app is a fantastic resource for Year 1 place value learning. The app is packed with fun, curriculum-aligned games that aim to build users’ confidence and boost maths ability with just 10 minutes of play per day.