Reception

Here are some games, investigations and activities we think are particularly good for children in Reception.

Some of these tasks may appear on other year group pages too. These tasks are open-ended and the children can learn a lot from exploring them.  These types of activities are used a lot in the classroom as children have the same starting point but can take their thinking in lots of different directions.  Some children may need extra prompts and support to guide their thinking.

[Last update 30 April 2020]

In addition to the table below, there are more general links on this Additional Links Page.  A link for those who would like to contribute or suggest resources is on the main Primary page.

Year group	Theme/Description	Activity Type Maths content	Task Summary	Printer	Adult	You will need
R Y1	The Mars Mission: Landing and Exploring Making parachutes	Practical/DT Size, shape, position, direction	Testing parachutes and try to land a toy rover on a pretend Martian surface.	No	Yes	Plastic bag, paper, fabric, string, sellotape, lego brick, scissors
R Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6	Pavement Chalk Designs	Drawing Shapes	Mark out a rectangle on the pavement using masking tape. Use tape to make sections within the rectangle. Colour in the sections to create a design.	No	Yes for younger children	Masking Tape, chalks, ruler or measuring tape
R Y1 Y2	Foot Parade	Cutting Sticking Number bonds to 10	Make a sequence of animal cards so that the total number of feet is 10.	Yes	An adult will be needed to set the activity up	Piece of paper, glue stick, scissors, print out of animal cards or pens for drawing animals.
R Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6	Count on me	Investigation Counting on fingers/systematic working	How many ways can you show each number from 1 to 5 on 1 hand or 2 hands	No	Yes	Fingers
R Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4	Pick Up Leaves	Outdoor activity Sorting	Pick up leaves or other items on a walk, sort them in different ways when you get home.	No	Yes	Items collected on a walk
R Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6	Shape Origami	Investigating shapes 2D shapes	Investigation what shapes you can make by folding paper in different ways	No	An adult will be needed to set the activity up	Pieces of paper for folding
R, Y1, Y2, Y3	Make a Ten Memory	Number fact fluency game Adding digits 0 to 10	Sort out cards to make 10 pairs of cards that total 10. Turn them over and make a 4 by 5 grid with the cards. Turn over two cards, keep them if they are a bond to 10.	No	You need a partner to play with	Deck of cards
R, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6	Lego Barrier Game	Activity 3D Shape matching using verbal instructions	You and your partner have the same lego pieces. One person builds a shape and then describes it to the other person so they hopefully build a shape that matches.	No	You need a partner to play with	Hard books to make a barrier, Lego.
R, Y1	Number Snake	Number fact fluency game Ordering numbers 1 to 10	Put numbers 1 to 10 in order on invisible number line.	No	You need a partner to play with	Deck of cards – cards used are 1 to 10.