Matching quantities 0-10 (concrete, pictorial, abstract - mixed)

Tips on how to use this exercise at home and at school.

Matching quantities 0-10 (concrete, pictorial, abstract - mixed)

Early maths concepts


In this exercise, the child forms a line with several pictures, fingers and blocks and connects them with the word number and finally with the number. 

To the sound recording of the number, the child matches the number of pictures (hearts, shoes, stars, etc.), then matches the number of fingers or prisms, and finally finds the specific number.

The goal is for the child to form an idea of a number in the range 0-10 and to understand the interrelationship between counting, naming and notation. The child should therefore be aware that the number, word and digit of one particular number have multiple forms.


Why is this exercise important?
The exercise supports the development of early numerical ideas. The aim is for the child to develop an idea of numbers in the range 0-5 and later 0-10 and to understand that the quantity ☻☻☻☻☻ can be represented as / / / /, this corresponds to the word "five" and the notation 5 and of course vice versa - i.e. the relationships between quantity, its naming and numerical notation.

Who is this exercise suitable for?
In general, it belongs to preschool or early school games. In addition to the concepts of number ideas, and rational assumptions, it also develops language skills at the same time. Part of the children solve the task intuitively and naturally, part of the children need to go through these tasks.

Methodological recommendations
Instructions can be read by you, played from the app or by the child.

In the settings, we can customize the exercise:

  • Combination of pictures, symbols, fingers, prisms, sounds, numbers
  • Number range 0-5 or 0-10

The child hears the number first and gradually finds the correct pattern for it. He matches the answers by dragging pictures, symbols, fingers, prisms, sounds and numbers in columns so that everything matches the pattern in the left column. It depends on the setting we have chosen. The exercise presents a higher level of difficulty because the child has to mentally jump randomly from different ways of thinking about the number, using randomly different ways of representation.

Tips for similar activities outside the app
For this activity, we can use finger counting in natural situations. For example, physically matching a finger to an object or prompting the child to remember how many horses were in the paddock, for example. The child has to mentally recall the situation and use the fingers as symbols to express the number.

It is also a great help to play memory games, and quartet and match the number with sounds, counts and so on.