Amount: one unit, a single   block; and a 1 penny coin To draw a number one starts at the green dot and stops at the red line.
3D association A tall candle is a lovely introduction to the number one. The single flame and tall candle below can clearly represent the written symbol.
For a more interactive activity wooden spoons can easily be sawn and sanded into something that represents a number one shape.  Wood, plasticine or clay can be used to make a suitable base.

Key words for rhyming phrase – One drum –one drummer drumming.

Riddle –

Not three legs, not four legs, only one.

Not for people only fairies and the toad wears the crown.

Number Rhyme

One sun so high in the sky,
Without your light there would only be night.
It is your warm that warms our earth,
So all can grow and bring new birth.
Flowers trees, birds and bees
All love the sun Oh Brilliant one!
You really do make life fun.

• Nursery Rhymes : Hickory Dickory Dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck ONE,
The mouse ran down, etc
Or   Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are …….
The following is an Action Rhyme This rhyme can be illustrated by engaging in a movement activity with a single copper rod (or similar wooden rod).

The tide rises, the tide falls.
The wind swirls, the wind stills.
In daring adventures we rush forward.
Then gently roll home again and rest.
We balance our body and mind
And focus on a place of playful grace.

For the 1st line the rod is thrown horizontally from both hands upwards and as it falls it is caught at about waist level.
For the 2^nd line the rod is twirled around in circles vertically in front of the body.
In the 3rd line the rod is rolled on the arms from the shoulders to the hands,
In the 4^th forth line the rod is rolled from the hands back into bent elbows where it is held still for a few moments.
In the 5^th line the rod is balanced upright from the palm of the hand or finger/s.
In the 6^th line the hand releases from the rod and catches it quickly before it falls from its upright position.

• Traditional songs:-‘One an Went to Mow’; ‘This Old Man He Plays One’. ‘The twelve Days of Christmas’; Green Grow the Rushes –Ho’…. – can be introduced in relation to the number one and continued verse by verse as the following numbers come into topical focus.

 

Creative Activities:-

• One drummer with one drum and one drumstick drama activities and art and craft activities.
• Explore the different foods provided by nature that have one single seed –nut in their centre, e.g. dates, avokados, almonds, plums, olives……
• Independent house numbers sold at DIYstores makegreat 3D shapes for children to handle or fixed on to a board and used to make relief rubbings.
• Finger painting with one specifically chosen finger can easily produce a picture of the candle. Collecting different fire colours on the tip of this finger can create a colourful flame.
• Colouring a number one on to a balloon with felt pen and then watching it grow while the balloon is blown up is an exciting visual experience. This can be followed up with balloon games that use a single balloon e.g. like keeping the balloon from touching the ground with a stick in one hand and the other hand held behind ones back or batting a balloon on a string against ones hand.
• The cup game of find which cup has the ball (or any other special object) placed under it. This game involves following the movements of a cup under which something is hidden. When many cups are moved quickly and/or simultaneously finding the right cup can be tricky to get right on the first choice.
• Similarly this approach can be related to activities such as:-

Making one pretend egg to go into a ten or twelve place egg box or the making of a pretend Birthday cake with one candle on it for a child (known to the participants) who is not yet one. A picture and the child’s name could be placed with the cake. Then when the cake gets two candles, the name and picture of another suitably aged child can be illustrated and the egg-box would have two eggs.

3D Shapes One can be associated with any singular round object because the 3D sphere oval and egg shape has only one surface. The globe represents the planet earth, and a 3D Globe. can introduce many related topics of discussion and exploration.

• The above special collection of round objects present tactile information from that can be used to aid the memory skills related to the following memory game. One item is secretly removed from the tray of items and the other players have to focus on recalling which individual item has subsequently gone missing. When setting up this game the author usually chooses a collection of items that provide interesting sensory and kinaesthetic information which could be identified as a single set and have a collective conceptual identity, e.g. it could be a collection of sticks or cones or stones or different buttons or 3D geometric shapes etc.
• A simple kinaesthetic game developed by the author, that is helpful for visual memory practice as well as vocabulary and self-expression, is based on collection of different balls as illustrated above. Firstly all the balls are placed on a tray in front of the players. Then the balls are passed around to all the players one at a time and each player holds each ball for a short time before passing it on to the next player. When everyone has become familiar with the balls in the game, the balls are put away out of sight. Then one player secretly puts one ball in a box and takes it to his/her place in front of the other players. This person can look in the box whenever s/he wishes. The other participants try to identify the chosen ball in the box by asking questions that get simple ‘Yes, or No’ Answers from the person who has the chosen ball in the box. The number and variations of different balls presented at the beginning of the game can be altered to meet different levels of ability, and increased when the participants have become familiar with a particular collection of balls. The collection below has been collected for their strong and unusual sensory qualities. If the participants find it too difficult to remember all the balls a set of matching picture cards can be used to make the game a little easier. One card is secretly chosen and put in the secret box to represent the players secretly chosen ball. Then all the balls can remain in front of the participants as an aid to their choice of questions and ultimate process of discovering which ball has its picture hidden in the box.
• Tell a story, appropriate to the listener’s age/s abilities and interests that include association with the individual and alone quality of number one or related to the concept of being out ahead as the E.g. from the author’s experience, for infants it may be ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, or The Ugly Duckling and; for middle school ages ‘The Emperor and the Nightingale’ or ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ and for senior school age ‘The Snow Goose’.

• The ‘I went shopping and I bought …….’ memory game can be played with the preface of ‘a’ or ‘one before each item. Variations could be focused on a theme such as going to the green grocers to buy fruit or vegetables, e.g. ‘I went to buy vegetables for our dinner and I bought one carrot and one potato and one cauliflower etc or ‘I went to the shop to buy some fruit and I bought one apple, and one banana etc. The different fruits or vegetable could be presented in a big basket containing one of each type. Young children can collect one item from the basket when it is their turn to choose. This game could then be followed by making of a mixed fruit desert or a vegetable stir fry or soup.

An alternative approach to this memory game is as follows;-

I went to the washing line and hung up a/one …red sock, second person adds a further item e.g. the other red sock, and each person adds one extra item. This game is particularly good for encouraging descriptive language e.g. Grandmas apron, a pair of stripy shorts this presents the interesting contrast between one single item which is described as a pair (two), my white Sunday dress, a blue spotted handkerchief, the babies soft teddy, a very long woolly scarf…. 

Creative Activity and Design

• Knitting and crochet activities present a 3D presentation of a continuous line combined with the numerical concept of repeatedly adding one more to make it bigger and bigger and bigger.
• A spiral is also a disciplined form of continuous line. Initially spirals are produced as free flowing circular movements assocciated with scribbling. This is another exciting design to find in the natural world i.e on snail shells and in manmade objects like springs and screws. To draw either as an inward spiral getting smaller and smaller or as an outward spiral getting bigger and bigger demands a good deal of spacial awareness as well as sophisticated levels of fine motor control within hand and arm movements. Spirals can be drawn in a clockwise and an anti clockwise direction. They can have a regular structure of expantion that creates a similar area of space between each turn or an ever increasing amonunt os space as presented by a snails shell and the mathematical structure of the fribonacci spiral.
• Do a one continuous line patterns or a picture
• Draw a picture or pattern using only independent straight lines (rulers of different sizes and made from different materials could also be provided).
• Choose only one colour of paint and do a painting (with or without the option to use black and white to make different shades of the one chosen colour.). Do a one colour drawing using different techniques for shading and colouring.
• Draw a dot picture or a pattern made up of different coloured and sized dots.
• Collect a singe flower or alternative suitable proect No. 1 object and place it in a long thin vase.
• Collect a single leaf or stone from outside then draw or recreate this using any art materials to produce a picture inspired by the natural object that represents the concept and/or written symbol for one.
• Find trees that have randomly grown individual leaves of a basically single shape. Group them together according to the shape, round, pointed,long and thin. Name them nad draw them and make leaf prints nad leaf print pictures and patterns.

In the natural outdoor environment nature provides great opportunities for developing and practicing discrimination of shape, form and special organisation of specific groups and clusters. For example leaves from different trees illustrate not only different shapes but also different patterns around their edges and different special arrangements; some have fingers or lobs as part of their identifiable shape while others grow in wonderfully structured numerical patterns. Maples usually have five lobes on each leaf, while the White Ash and the Elder trees have leaves with 7 individual leaflets and the Mountain ash has 15 leaflets. The growth of seeds can range from that of a single seed in its own individual case, to those which have an uncountable number of seeds produced in one seed case. Thus nature illustrates the full spectrum of numerical value within this and other aspects of biology. Natural environment give us opportunities to organise our own numerical structures and plenty of numerical concepts to explore and find within the natural structures provided by Mother Nature herself.

Outdoor activity – Mathematical skills are strongly associated with balance and special awareness which is fundamental to awareness of rhythm and rhythmic patterns. Woodland is especially effective for these activities:-

• Balancing a wooden stick or dowel on ones finger.
• Egg and spoon obstacle courses. The egg and the spoon can be creatively changed to other suitably paired objects e.g. a small spade and a stone or an orange balanced in the top of a beaker.
• One on one, balancing one thing on another on the ground or on ones hand while standing still and/or slowly moving.
• Finding natural objects that present a number one shape. Building a number

One with natural materials. This can be done as a very small creation or as a very large giant natural structure.

• Following a trail marked out with previously made number one arrows or number one arrows made with sticks or other natural materials.

To make paper arrows for a trail or treasure hunt –

Fold a narrow rectangular piece of paper in half

Mark up as shown and then cut along the dotted lines to make a number one shape that opens up into an arrow.

• Finding/making a drum stick then finding things that can be used as a drum. Use these improvised drums and drum sticks to play drumming games like copy my rhythm one at a time, individually or as a group. Pass the drum stick – one person uses the stick to make a drumming rhythm on the (improvised) drum then passes the stick onto the next person who repeats the first rhythm and adds a few extra beats, etc.
• A sequenced drumming compendium, where one person starts with a simple rhythm and then the next person joins in and so on until the whole group has successfully joined the rhythm band. This activity can also have a consecutive process of completion, so that the first or last person stops, then the next person stops and so on until everyone has finished.
• Another game is drumming rhythm messages to each other over a large outdoor area.
• Learn to play with a yoyo, or a hoop. Play
• Play marbles or bowls – rolling a single ball across a suitably surfaced area in order to hit touch or get close to a previously placed ball inside the area of play.
• Play normal or better still giant Pick-Up Sticks.

Key words for spelling – one on one
Simple spelling sentences – One son on Monday.
My mother had one son on Monday
One son won a ton of (learner or presenter chooses something) on Monday

 

More advanced levels of exploring the mathematical interpretation of one as a single unit

The number one can be associated with the shere shape which has only one surface. This can also be associated with the earth planet as illustrated on a globe.

A drawing compass can be used to make a perfect circular shape.

Within our number system the concept that adding one more unit makes the next named number is the first and most prominant learning. The concept of one as the foundation of all aspects of numeracy is key to an understanding of our base ten system and identification of quantitythrough place value.

Young children who can count confidently may not have an understanding of the conservation of number. This child has to recount the same objects when they are moved into a different pattern, or a different place or they just look different because something else has change.

Young children who learn to count may not be able to say the value of a number if one more is added. When given the a practical demonstration e.g. you have six buttons (presented on the table) and then I give you one more button (one button is added to the group of six) now how many buttons do you have? Young children usually have to recount the buttons to reach the answer seven. For this child adding one more is a new counting task rather than an auditory request for what number comes next. Older children who are working with number sums between 1 and 50 and can identify and count up to 100 and more, often cannot answer the questions of one more such as 44+1= ?  or 89+1= ?

Games related to the process of adding or subtractingone can be explored throughout a person’s life of learning about numbers. When a person has secured this one more aspect of our numerical counting structure then any question even those with very high numbers such as – a million and four add one, and fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty three add one, will be answered immediately [providing the person can correctly recall the original number that was said]. This is a good memory game to play and if participants are also asked to record the question as a sum, they can get good practice transcribing numbers from their spoken form into their visual (written) numerical formate.

The use of any form of counting frame is based on this concept of one more. The standard base ten abacus illustrates these more complex aspects of place value. The abacus can be used successfully even without any numerical understanding if the process of adding one more is maintained accurately when moving the beads on the abacus.