Teach Your Monster Number Skills is a game developed with three world-renowned early years mathematics experts (Bernie Westacott, Dr Helen J. Williams, and Dr Sue Gifford) to help children practice the skills needed to develop their number sense.
The game covers the early years national curriculum in the UK, and early years requirements for mathematics across the world. It currently includes numbers from 0 to 5, and will be updated in the next few months with numbers up to 10 as well.
The game consists of 8 mini games which the children can play as they explore. Each game currently has 5 levels, making a total of 40 levels of difficulty to be navigated. The next level for each mini game is only unlocked when the player has achieved a high enough score on the level they are currently playing.
All of the games use various teaching objects known as manipulatives designed to
to help children better grasp mathematical concepts by visually representing numbers in lots of different ways. Manipulatives such as 5 frames, dice, and fingers have been deliberately chosen as they likely to be familiar to children from the classroom.
The mini games are all broadly focused on three of the key skills of number sense — counting, subitising, and number bonds — but also include a number of other important number concepts, as outlined below.
The Mini Games
Bouncy castle
What does it help kids to practice?
Recognising numerals and putting them in correct order of size.
What number skills does it cover?
Ordinality — putting numbers in order
Subitising — instantly recognizing how many without counting
Magnitude — understanding that the higher you go, the higher the number in the counting sequence
Matching numerals to number words and to numerosity (the number of objects visible)
Recognising numerals and patterns that are 1 more or less than one another
The Claw
What does it help kids to practice?
Developing key skills and concepts in counting.
What number skills does it cover?
Cardinality — understanding that the last number counted tells you how many there are altogether
Tagging — counting with 1-2-1 correspondence
Matching numerals to number words
Part-part-whole — putting smaller numbers together to make a bigger number
Dino Cows
What does it help kids to practice?
Matching numbers of objects in standard patterns through subitising and counting.
What number skills does it cover?
Subitising — instantly recognizing how many without counting
Matching numerals to number words and to numerosity (the number of objects visible)
Bumper Cars
What does it help kids to practice?
Matching number of objects in standard patterns with numerals through counting and recognising numbers.
What number skills does it cover?
Subitising — instantly recognising how many without counting
Matching numerals to number words and to numerosity (the number of objects visible)
Recognising numbers that are 1 more or less than one another
Snowballs
What does it help kids to practice?
Recognising numbers at speed, particularly those that are one more and one less than another.
What number skills does it cover?
Subitising — instantly recognising how many without counting
Matching numerals to number words and to numerosity (the number of objects visible)
Recognising numbers that are 1 more or less than one another
Rollercoaster
What does it help kids to practice?
Building the foundations of addition through recombining parts to make the whole.
What number skills does it cover?
Number bonds to 5
Addition as adding on/augmentation — one number is added onto another number to make a bigger number
Part-part-whole — putting smaller numbers together to make a bigger number
Hide & Seek
What does it help kids to practice?
Building the foundations of subtraction through breaking numbers apart and putting them back together.
What number skills does it cover?
Number bonds to 5
Subtraction as taking away — one number is removed from a bigger number to leave another smaller number
Part-part-whole — putting two smaller numbers back together to make a bigger number
Developing number facts knowledge and fluency
Slides
What does it help kids to practice?
Breaking whole numbers into parts, building number facts and the foundation of addition and subtraction.
What number skills does it cover?
Number bonds to 5
Subtraction as breaking a number into two parts/the “not” concept
Addition as adding together/aggregation — two numbers are joined together to make a bigger number
Part-part-whole — breaking a number into two parts, and then recombining those two smaller numbers to make the bigger number
Matching numerals to number words and to numerosity (the number of objects visible)
Developing number facts knowledge and fluency