Number rhymes and songs

What to try 

• As your toddler grows in confidence and starts to recite numbers, sing lots of number rhymes with them.   
• Many number rhymes in English count forwards and backwards and have actions to help follow the counting. Using fingers to count really helps your toddler to connect number names to a meaningful thing. 
• Examples of number rhymes include ‘Five Speckled Frogs’, ‘Five Currant Buns’, ‘Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day’, ‘Five Little Monkeys’ and ‘Zoom Zoom Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon’.  

Good to know 

Don’t forget to count forwards as well as backwards when singing or playing. If you need some inspiration, ‘Here is the Beehive’ is a perfect rhyme for counting to five, and it goes like this: 

Here is the beehive (Make a fist, hiding all your fingers and thumb inside) 
Where are the bees? 
Hidden away where nobody sees 
Watch and you’ll see them come out of the hive 
One…two…three…four…five! (Hold up one finger each time you say a number) 
Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz. (wiggle all your fingers!)