Unlocking the padlocks

Set out in the maths area in Pre School Minors was a tray containing padlocks and keys. Attached to each key was a keyring, each keyring had a different amount of coloured stickers ranging from 1 to 5. A practitioner wrote on the bottom of each padlock a number from 1 to 5. 

The children took it in turns to choose a key and see if they could find the right padlock, the children quickly understand the concept of the activity and were able to count the coloured stickers and find the correct padlock with the right number on it. As the children turned the key in the padlock their little faces shone with happiness and they were proud to show the practitioner their success.

To alter this activity for the younger children practitioners differentiated the activity by adding the same coloured sticker to each padlock as well as the keyring. This activity was more about finding the same colour than counting the coloured spots. This proved to be a great success for the younger children as they still got to open the padlocks.

Apart from number recognition and colour matching this activity also helped children develop their hand eye co-ordinations as they had to concentrate on getting the key in and turning it the correct way.