Quick Ideas For Snack Time Maths

Snack is often a really motivating time for communication e.g. children using PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) to request a favoured snack item.  It can also be a great time to build in some early maths skills. 

Here are some quick ideas to build maths skills into your snack session:

More or less – have two plates. On one plate have lots of the child’s preferred snack (small pieces if it’s something like cracker) and on the other plate have significantly less snack.  Encourage the child to use gesture/speech/sign or symbols to indicate whether they want ‘more’ or ‘less’ snack.

1 or 2? – When offering the children a snack show 1 piece or 2 pieces and ask them if they want “one or two”. 

Snack shop – if you are exploring money, making snack into a shop is a great way to support children to begin to understand monetary value and exchange.  

I used colourful semantics to make snack into a shop by adding a coin, or the numerical value, onto the picture of the snack. 

The children then had to find the matching coin and give it to an adult in exchange for their snack, worked amazingly!  We then took this learning into the community by making a shopping list and going to the local shop.  Follow this link for snack time resources!

For more inspiration for early maths activities check out our book '101 Inclusive and SEN Maths Lessons'