11 games that suit classes 1 and 2. Tap one to play.
In the first two classes children are building the ground floor of arithmetic: counting with meaning, the number pairs that make ten, place value up to a hundred, simple adding and taking away, reading a clock and counting money. Nothing learnt later stands firm without these.
Games suit this age well. A six-year-old will happily do forty small sums in a game and resist ten on a page. Keep sessions to about ten minutes, sit with the child, and talk about how they got each answer. The talk matters more than the score.
Counting on, not counting all. To add 6 and 3, a child should start from 6 and count 7, 8, 9, not count out both piles from one.
Number pairs to ten known by heart: 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, 5 and 5.
Tens and ones. 34 is three tens and four ones, not a 3 next to a 4.
Reading the hour and the half hour on a clock with hands.
If a game is too hard
Go down a level, or leave that game for a month. Struggle that ends in success builds confidence, but repeated failure teaches a child that "I am bad at maths", which is rarely true and hard to undo. At this age real objects help more than any screen: count stairs, share out biscuits, lay the table for five.
Maths Games