What you need:
Christmas tree
Decorations
Lights - Children should be supervised closely when doing this activity.
I first set this activity up when Sophie was little. She loved looking at the decorations in the garden centre and helping to decorate our Christmas tree but I didn't want her to rearrange the decorations ! So I set up a Christmas decoration shop using a small tree, cheap baubles, tinsel and battery operated that I got from Poundland.
She enjoyed filling her basket with decorations, pretending to pay then decorating her tree. Once she finished she would take it all off and buy some more! The activity was such a hit that we have set it up every year since.
It provides such an easy way to develop maths skills through play. You could count how many baubles are in your basket when it is time to play or once they are hung on the tree. If your child is pretending to be the shop keeper you could ask them to serve you. Ask for up to 6 baubles and see if they can count out the correct amount. Model how to count as you select each bauble and stop taking them when you reach the correct number.
You could also introduce money. Each item could cost 1p. Can they add up how many objects you have altogether to find the total cost? They could then count out the correct amount of pennies.
Skills:
One-to-one correspondence - this is an early maths skill that requires children to count each object in a set once with one touch per object. Children that have learnt to count by rote are just reciting the numeral names in order. Counting with one-to-one correspondence is a much more complex skill. To support your child model how to say the numeral name aloud as you touch each object. Lining the objects up makes them easier to count. Begin with small amounts e.g. up to 4 objects.