Counter Stacks: Build and Compare

Focus: Counting, comparing quantities, and number recognition

This playful activity helps children explore counting and comparison by building towers of counters. It’s a hands-on way to practise early maths concepts such as taller/shorter, more/less, and linking quantities to numbers.

Equipment you’ll need:

• A set of counters

• Digit cards (optional, to match numbers to towers)

• A flat surface such as a table or tray

Setup:

Arrange several small stacks of counters in different heights (e.g. 2, 4, 6). Leave extra counters nearby along with digit cards.

Invitation to play:

Say: “I made some towers. What do you notice? Can you make your own towers?”

Possible play and learning:

Children might:

• Explore height by comparing “taller” and “shorter” stacks.

• Count how many counters are in each tower.

• Order towers by size, balance them, or invent imaginative stories (e.g. “This is a tower of treasure!”).

• Match towers to digit cards, linking quantities to written numbers.

Why it matters:

This activity builds early understanding of comparison, measurement language, and number recognition. Children practise counting while developing the ability to compare and order quantities, important foundations for problem-solving and mathematical reasoning later in school.