Designed specifically for pre-school settings 1st Steps with Numicon in the Nursery Kit gives children a sound start to their maths understanding, and boosts practitioners maths subject knowledge. In addition to the plastic resources the kit includes an illustrated teaching guide that explains the key mathematical ideas children will meet at this vital stage in their maths understanding. There are also ideas for lots of innovative playful maths activities for inside and outside play in sand, water, with construction and role play; as well as ideas for maths at snack time, on the carpet, in messy play and on the table top. A key and original feature is the focus on maths conversation with ideas to encourage mathematical development throughout the setting.

Practitioners sometimes find it difficult to think of meaningful maths activities, but practitioners in Southend are now much more aware of the potential for mathematical learning in their setting and are using the Numicon resources in a range of exciting creative ways. In addition to the plastic resources the kit includes an illustrated teaching guide that explains the key mathematical ideas children will meet at this vital stage in their maths understanding and boosts practitioner maths subject knowledge

By observing children using the Numicon resources you can gain a wealth of information not only about their development in Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy (PRSN), which practitioners do often find challenging to observe, but also across the 6 areas, some examples include:

• Communication
• Language and Literacy: explaining thinking, developing vocabulary
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World: construction
• Creative Development: making patterns and talking about colours
• Personal, social and Emotional Development: working together
  Physical Development: developing fine motor skills etc.