The Incey Wincey Game EYFS

Our first stab at a EYFS resource.  (This was in the teachers' notes.)

This is a try to re-write for Foundation age children!


(We are presuming that Incey will still be on the site but slightly re-written to follow on from this - adding numbers 1-6 on either side of the central point on the KS1 version? Currently it is NOT a number track as alluded to in the notes.)



Why do this activity?

This game is a counting game. Children count the dots on the dice and then count the number of spaces moved on the drainpipe. By playing this game, learners will be introduced to the idea of mathematical opposites (up and down) which will later lead into an understanding of addition and subtraction as each other's inverse.

Possible approach

Sing the rhyme with the children, encouraging them to use actions as well.

Incey Wincey Spider climbing up the spout;
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out.
Out came the sunshine
And dried up all the rain;
So, Incey Wincey spider climbed up the spout again.

There are three ways to play this game, all of which require one or two dice.

  1. The game lends itself to a large version in which two children represent the sun and the rain and an object (the spider) moves according to the throws of the dice. You could mark out the drainpipe on the playground or on the floor of the hall. In this case, the sunshine and the rain become opposite movements of backwards and forwards or left and right, rather than up and down.
  2. The interactivity can be used on an interactive whiteboard with two children (the sun and the rain) throwing the dice and moving the spider up and down accordingly.
  3. You can print out a paper version of the game to play in pairs which could be laminated for long-term use. Here is a black and white copy, and here is a colour copy. Both have a spider picture on the second page which could be cut out and stuck onto an ordinary counter.
It would be good to have the interactivity and/or the floor version of the game available for children to play at other times.

Key questions

Tell me about being the sunshine/rain.
Which way are you going to move?
What number do you want the dice to come up with?

Possible extension

Incey Wincey Spider is a similar game but introduces a number track and encourages children to visualise and make predictions.

Possible tags:
Early counting (see PSRN goal), language
Personal and Social Development: Taking turns (see Personal Relationships goals)
Enabling Environments: Possibilities for outside, best done in small groups, starting from a story