Poetry picnic

Objective: Enjoy and celebrate poetry through shared reading and performances.

• Classes bring a picnic rug and enjoy listening to or reading poetry aloud in a shared space (for example, the school oval or library.)

• Include performances from students or staff (funny limericks, acrostic poems or bush ballads).

Literacy Olympics

Objective: Enhance vocabulary, spelling and literacy skills.

A series of quick, rotating literacy games (complete in cross stage groups or class groups), such as:

• sight word relays
• spelling bee sprints
• syllable toss
• vocabulary bingo
• punctuation races

Simultaneous reading

Objective: Promote a school-wide love of reading through daily shared reading time and peer recommendations.

• At a surprise time each day, a bell rings and everyone in the school stops and reads for 10 minutes – teachers too!
• Students share what they are reading and make recommendations to peers.

Mystery reader

Objective: Promote a school-wide love of reading

• Invite staff, parents, or community members to come in and read a picture book or short story – but keep their identity a surprise until they appear.
• Older students can write questions or predictions beforehand.

Whole-school word of the day

Objective: Revise vocabulary and develop word consciousness.

• Display a new tier 2 vocabulary word each day with definitions and usage (for example, ‘marvellous’, 'curious', 'astonishing’).
• Challenge students to use the word in conversation or in their writing during the day.

Story relay

Objective: Build collaborative storytelling skills by co-constructing a narrative across classes or stages.

• Collaborate across the school or across stages.

• Each class constructs part of a narrative, which is then passed on to the next group to continue.

• Use a prompt to start. For example, 'This week the strangest thing happened in the playground…'

• Publish the completed text or hold a shared reading with the contributing classes.

Literacy art gallery

Objective: Celebrate literature through student-created artwork inspired by favourite books.

• Each class or student creates a piece of artwork inspired by a book that they love.
• Display as an art gallery.

Book freeze frame

Objective: Develop oral language through discussion, collaboration and interpretation of texts.

• Share a reading of a text with the class or stage.
• Students create a freeze frame of a scene from the text in groups. One student provides an explanation of the scene or narrates in the role of a character

Build a story

Objective: Develop listening and speaking skills through the sequencing and telling of an imaginative text.

• Provide students with a focus or topic or prompt.
• Students sit in a circle and take turns to build the story.
• Students must focus on adding to the storyline, keeping it consistent and ensuring that it makes senses

Area race

Objective: Revisit multiplication facts through covering your area first.

How to play:

1. Each player needs a sheet of grid paper with a defined area to play in.
2. In pairs students take turns to roll two dice to indicate two values.
3. Multiply the numbers to determine the area of the shape. Draw the shape on the grid and record the area.
4. Continue rolling, drawing, and recording until one player covers the entire grid.
5. The first player to cover the whole grid with shapes wins.

Number line jump

Objective: Develop counting skills, addition, subtraction, and number sequencing.

Materials

• Number line on the floor (use tape, chalk, or printed number line)
• Dice

How to play

1. Students determine a target number.
2. Students start at a chosen number on the number line (for example), 0 or 10).
3. Roll a die and move forward that many spaces (or move backward if practising subtraction).
4. Take turns rolling and moving.
5. The first player to reach the predetermined target number wins
6. Encourage students to use mental strategies to track their position on the number line.

Differentiation

• Early Stage 1: Count by 1s or 2s only.
• Stage 2 to 3: Use 2 dice; add one number and subtract the other to move.

60-second challenge

Objective: Practice estimation, counting, and develop time awareness.

Materials

• Timer (stopwatch or clock with a third hand)
• Paper and pencil

How to play

1. Set a 60-second timer.
2. Students estimate and record how many times they can perform an activity in 60 seconds (for example, star jumps, writing their name, counting items on their desk).
3. After the timer stops, students perform the activity and record the actual number.
4. Compare estimated and actual results, calculating the difference.

Differentiation

• Graph the class results to identify trends.
• For Stage 3, explore average, median, and mode of the class data.

Maths charades

Objective: Build mathematical vocabulary and understanding of number and shape properties. Encourages active participation and reinforces maths language.

Materials

• Cards with mathematical terms (for example, triangle, odd number, multiplication, equal, prism)

How to play

1. One student draws a card and acts out the word or concept without speaking.
2. Other students guess the term based on the action.
3. Rotate roles to give all students a chance to act and guess.

Dicey races

Objective: Develop number fluency and apply operations in a fun race format.

Materials

• Dice (standard or ten-sided)
• Race track (printed or drawn on whiteboard/paper)

How to play

1. Players take turns rolling the dice.
2. After rolling, apply an operation to the number rolled (for example, multiply by 2, subtract 1).
3. Move forward on the race track by the resulting number of spaces.
4. The first player to reach the finish line wins.

Australia: Aboriginal seasonal calendars to explore patterns and sequencing

Objective: Understand and represent patterns in natural cycles through Aboriginal seasonal knowledge.

Materials

• Aboriginal seasonal calendars (digital or print)
• Paper and art supplies for charts/diagrams

How to play

1. Examine seasonal calendars from Aboriginal communities, noting patterns in weather, plants, and animals.
2. Identify sequences and cycles related to the seasons.
3. Create visual representations (charts, diagrams) to show changes throughout the year.

Resources

• Many Lands, Many Seasons (NSW Schools Reconciliation Challenge)
• Aboriginal Seasonal Calendars | Environment and Heritage)

Fraction feast

Objective: Explore fractions through real-world contexts using food and recipes to develop proportional reasoning.

Materials

• Simple recipes (printed or written) that can be scaled up or down

How to play

1. Provide students with a simple recipe.
2. Ask students to double or halve the quantities, applying fraction concepts.

You could also engage students in preparing the recipe to reinforce measurement and fractions through hands-on experience.

Differentiation

• Challenge older students with mixed numbers, equivalent fractions, and comparing recipes using ratios.

Maths around the world

Objective: Celebrate global numeracy by exploring mathematical concepts through different cultural contexts.

Materials

• Learning stations set up for different countries (for example, Japan, Egypt, India, Australia)
• Relevant materials for each station (origami paper, pyramid models, game boards)

How to play

1. Arrange learning stations, each representing a different country and its unique mathematical focus.
2. Students rotate through stations completing culturally themed maths problems or activities:

• Egypt: Investigate pyramids to discuss 3D shapes and volume.
• India: Play traditional math games like Pachisi (an Indian board game).
• Australia: Examine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander seasonal calendars to identify patterns and sequencing in nature.
• Japan: Use origami folding to explore symmetry and fractions (instructions follow)

Differentiation

• Provide guided support or simplified tasks at each station for younger students.
• Challenge older students with deeper investigations, extended problem-solving, or creating their own cultural math activities.

Origami folding to explore symmetry and fractions

Objective: Develop understanding of symmetry and fractions through hands-on origami folding activities.

Materials

• Origami paper or square sheets of paper
• Visuals or instructions for basic origami folds (for example, paper cranes, cubes)

How to play

1. Introduce students to basic origami folds, demonstrating how to fold paper into shapes like cranes or cubes.
2. Discuss lines of symmetry in the folded shapes and how each fold divides the paper into equal parts.
3. Relate the folds to fractional concepts, for example: folding a square in half illustrates one half, folding it into quarters illustrates one quarter.
4. Encourage students to observe and describe symmetry and fractional parts in their origami.

Resources

• Origami cube activity

More numeracy games ideas

• Explore the Universal Resources Hub for numeracy games

• Invite guest speakers, parents and carers to share their experiences with literacy and numeracy in their workplace. Speakers could share insights into how they use literacy and numeracy skills in their everyday work, giving students the opportunity to learn from people in various fields.

• Have fun with a literacy and numeracy scavenger hunt. Create a list of literacy and numeracy related items for students to find around the school. This can include finding words, punctuation marks, scales, a calculator, a dictionary or anything else that involves literacy and numeracy.
• Make the week memorable with a literacy and numeracy themed dress-up day, where students can come to school dressed in something that represents literacy or numeracy.
• Showcase literacy and numeracy in your school. Encourage classes to create a presentation or display of students’ work that highlights their literacy and numeracy skills.
• Organise a literacy and numeracy book swap, where students can bring in gently used books to exchange with their classmates.
• Challenge students to integrate their literacy and numeracy skills to create a new cereal box that stands out on the shelves and attracts consumers. Students will need to use literacy to communicate the product's features and numeracy to ensure accurate measurements, packaging, calculations, and pricing. Ask students to:
  • suggest a new cereal, give the cereal a creative name and write a short description convincing customers to buy it.
  • create a brand and slogan for the cereal that communicates the product's key features or benefits.
  • write a clear and concise description of the cereal, highlighting its ingredients, flavours, and nutritional value.
  • include any necessary information such as, serving suggestions, allergen warnings, and contact details.
  • calculate and accurately represent the dimensions of the cereal box, including length, width, and height.
  • determine the pricing strategy for the cereal box, considering factors like production costs, profit margins, and potential discounts.
  • present their cereal box for peer feedback.