“Counting Fish” is a fun game that will give your child lots of practice counting and reading numerals. Lots of useful learning before school starts 
Here are the Irish Curriculum Guidelines if you have not already read them in previous articles:
Content for junior infant classes
Strand unit: Counting
The child should be enabled to
- count the number of objects in a set, 1-10
Strand unit: Analysis of number – Numeration
- develop an understanding of the conservation of number, 1-5*
- read, write and order numerals, 1-5**
* Conservation of number means that your child knows that it is “4″ regardless of how it is presented:
eg .4 fish close together, 4 fish scattered all over the sea bed, 2 fish on one side of the screen and 2 fish on the other…
** Your child only needs to read numbers 1-5. This game will help boost your child’s learning as it deals with numbers 0- 10 in level 2.
Level 1 of “Counting Fish” deals with small numbers and the fish are easy to see. Your child needs to count the number of fish he/she see swimming and then click on the corresponding numeral.
As you move your mouse over the numeral cards you will hear what number it is. This is helpful for children who are good at counting but are only learning to read written numerals.
If you make a mistake:
If your child makes a mistake he/she will hear an audio hint, see above, utilizing a more than and less than hint . It is important for children to hear and use the terms “more than” and “less than” as a point of comparison between numbers. This will help with addition and subtraction later on.
“Counting Fish” has 3 levels of difficulty. Your child must score 70% or more to move onto the next level. They get tricky, trust me. Not that I got any wrong or anything!
Have fun,
Miss Mernagh 
