Numberblocks is a British TV show aimed at 3-6 year olds. Through short stories and songs, the show provides its viewers with a fun and concrete way of thinking about numbers. For example, after watching the show, a 3yo friend shared with me excitedly, “Three has THREE blocks! Get it?” He was also able to tell me that 1+2+3+4+5=15 and (in different words) that one triangle number plus the next bigger triangle number is a square. Because of the show, my kids think of each number up to 15 as a beloved character, as cool and detailed as Moana or Batman. And yes, they are watching the show as I write this!
This past January, I hosted a virtual Numberblocks club. It was fun, so I thought I’d share what we did here. The basic structure was:
- Four 30 minute meetings
- Every child had MathLink Cubes to play with during the meetings. These are the perfect physical companion to the show and even the non-branded ones look just like numberblocks. When I refer to a physical “numberblock” below, I mean, MathLink cubes that we’re pretending are numberblocks.
- Each meeting we watched 2-3 episodes on a theme interspersed with related math-link cube activities. Note: I was able to stream Netflix through Zoom, but it took a bit of testing and settings changes beforehand.
- After the meetings, kids were given coloring sheets related to the watched episodes. This was especially nice for kids who missed a meeting because they could still watch the episodes and do the coloring sheets.
All the coloring sheets can be found here. Want a similar style coloring sheet for another episode? Email me!
Here are the week-by-week details as best as I can remember them:
Pre-Week 1: To get excited, before the first meeting we all watched the Christmas Special and did the related coloring sheet.
Week 1: Meet the Numbers!
- Welcome: Share your name and build your age as a numberblock
- Watch: S2e19 Peekaboo
- Peekaboo Activity: Take turns hiding one number block behind another number block, and having the others guess the hidden number
- Watch: S2e27 PatternPalace
- Pattern Activity: Take turns making a pattern of different colored blocks and having the others guess what block would come next
Want another favorite to get you started? Watch S2e30 The Wrong Way
Week 2: Rectangliness!
- Welcome: Repeat Peekaboo Activity
- Watch: s3e3 The Way of the Rectangle
- Array Activity: Pick a number 1-12, and ask what rectangles it can make
- Watch: s3e4 Ride the Rays
- Ray Activity: Pick a number 1-5, and ask the kids to make a numberblock that can ride a ray that is that many blocks wide
Need more on Rectangliness?!? Watch s6e11 How Rectangly and s6e12 Rectangle Racers.
Week 3: Twos!
- Welcome: What do you think would be in a place called Twoland?
- Watch: s6e8 Twoland
- Doubling Activity: Everyone makes two of a number then squishes them together and counts up the blocks, and shares what their number is doubled
- Watch: s6e21 Snow Day Doubles
- Un-Doubling Activity: Everyone secretly builds two of the same number together and squishes them together. Take turns guessing each person’s original number
- Watch: s6e29 What If
Want another fabulous episode about doubling? Check-out Double Back, a time travelling special! Or want to read an excellent book on doubling? Check-out One Grain of Rice – it’s about the folktale referenced in the “What If” episode and lists many large powers of two in the back!
Week 4: Clubs!
- Welcome: Build and share your favorite numberblock and any facts you know about it
- Watch: s3e8 Fifteen
- Steps Activity: Everyone builds a step shape and shares how many blocks they used
- Watch: s3e10 Step Squads
- Club Brainstorm: Step Squads are a club, can you think of any other number clubs?
- Watch: s6e17 Club Picnic
Obsessed with clubs like me? Check-out this page of fan-made clubs!
Note: the episodes given are the American season and episode numbers, which is confusingly different from the UK ones.