What is Numicon?

Numicon is an approach to teaching maths that helps your child to see connections between numbers. From Oxford University Press, it supports your child as they learn early maths skills from nursery to year 6. It is a multi-sensory way of learning, which means your child learns by seeing and feeling.

Physical resources like the colourful Numicon Shapes are an important part of Numicon. The holes in the Numicon Shapes represent the numbers 1 to 10. When they are arranged in order, as in the picture above, children can easily see connections between numbers, such as ‘one more’ or ‘one less’.

Later on, your child will be able to see more complex mathematical ideas, like how two fours make eight, three twos make six and so on. This lays the foundation of their understanding of number throughout their primary years.