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Hands-on maths in Kindergarten to Year 2: how to help at home
Western Australia will trial limits on classroom screens in the early years. Here is what Kindergarten to Year 2 maths covers and how to practise it at home.
Read the guideKey points
From Term 1, 2027, Western Australia will run a six-month trial limiting classroom screen use for Kindergarten to Year 2 students in 10 public schools, each receiving $50,000 for hands-on materials [1].
Kindergarten to Year 2 maths is built on counting, recognising small quantities on sight, partitioning numbers, patterns, shapes, position and comparing length, mass, capacity and duration [3][4][5].
Australian research links early skills such as counting to 20 and recognising the numbers 1 to 10 with later numeracy achievement in Years 3 and 5 [6].
Very little of it needs equipment: household objects, a calendar and a clock cover most of the content.
What has Western Australia announced?
On 12 October 2026 the Western Australian government announced a program called Back to Basics. From Term 1, 2027, ten public schools will run a six-month trial restricting classroom screen use from Kindergarten to Year 2, with each school receiving $50,000 for hands-on materials. Students will still use devices to meet technology curriculum requirements and to sit the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which is now delivered online [1].
The state's Education Minister, Sabine Winton, said it was timely to "fully contemplate the impacts and opportunities that screens play in our schools" [1]. The trial follows limits announced in the eastern states. New South Wales will recommend a 15-minute daily classroom screen limit for Kindergarten to Year 2 from Term 1, 2027, and make it mandatory in 2028 [2], as our guide to school screen time limits in 2027 (/learn/school-screen-time-limits-2027-nsw-victoria) explains.
For parents of young children, the more useful point sits underneath the policy. Early years maths is largely physical work with objects, whatever a school decides about devices.
What does maths cover in Kindergarten to Year 2?
The content below comes from the Queensland alignment documents for Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. Your state may sequence some of it differently, and our guide to what the curriculum expects each year (/learn/is-my-child-on-track) explains how the year levels fit together.
Kindergarten. Children name, represent and order numbers including zero to at least 20, and recognise the number of objects in a collection up to five on sight, without counting. They partition and combine collections up to 10, represent practical addition, subtraction and sharing situations with objects, and copy and continue repeating patterns. They compare length, capacity, mass and duration directly, sequence the days of the week and times of day, sort and name familiar shapes, and describe where things are in relation to other objects [3].
Year 1. The number range extends to at least 120. Children partition two-digit numbers into tens and ones, quantify collections by making equal groups and skip counting by twos, fives and tens, and add and subtract within 20. They solve practical problems including simple money transactions and equal sharing, describe duration using years, months, weeks, days and hours, measure length with informal units laid end to end, and give and follow directions to move objects around a space [4].
Year 2. The number range extends to at least 1000. Children partition, rearrange, regroup and rename two- and three-digit numbers, including recognising what a zero digit does in place value notation. They recall addition facts to 20 and use them to work out related subtraction facts, add and subtract one- and two-digit numbers using part-part-whole reasoning, count the days between events on a calendar, and read an analogue clock to the hour, half-hour and quarter-hour [5].
Why do these early skills matter?
The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) summarised research linking the Australian Early Development Census, in which teachers rate children in their first year of school, with later NAPLAN results. The analysis sample was 1,927 children who started full-time school in 2009. The language and cognitive skills domain had the strongest positive association with achievement in Year 3, and the effect continued into Year 5. The individual skills correlating most strongly with Year 3 numeracy included recognising the numbers 1 to 10, counting to 20, and one-to-one correspondence between objects and number names [6].
Two cautions apply: these are associations rather than proof of cause, and the ratings come from teacher judgement rather than a test. The practical reading still holds, in that the skills predicting later numeracy are not advanced ones [6].
The Grattan Institute's 2025 report on primary maths gives the scale: on 2024 NAPLAN results, about one in three students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 were not proficient in numeracy, an estimated 1.3 million students [7].
What does hands-on practice look like at home?
Counting collections. Count out a set of buttons or pasta pieces, rearrange them, then ask how many there are now. Recognising that the number does not change is the point.
Quantities on sight. Roll one die and ask how many dots there are without counting.
Tens and ones. Bundle straws or pegs into tens with a rubber band. Ask your child to make 34, then 43, and to say what is different.
Parts of ten. Hide some of ten counters under your hand and ask how many are hidden. This builds the part-part-whole reasoning Year 2 relies on.
Skip counting. Count by twos going up the stairs, by fives when setting out cutlery, by tens with coins.
Patterns. Make a repeating pattern with two kinds of pasta, then ask your child to continue it and name the repeating unit.
Measuring. Compare lengths with hand spans or shoes before using a ruler, and ask which container holds more water before checking.
Calendar and clock. Mark a coming event on a wall calendar and count the days left, and point out o'clock and half past times during the day.
Money. In Year 1 and Year 2, let your child hand over coins at a shop and work out the change with you.
For the written number work, our free printable maths worksheets (/worksheets/maths) cover Kindergarten to Year 6 with answer keys, including addition and subtraction (/worksheets/maths/topic/addition-and-subtraction), place value (/worksheets/maths/topic/place-value), patterns (/worksheets/maths/topic/patterns) and shapes and objects (/worksheets/maths/topic/shapes-and-objects).
Does this mean screens are the problem?
The trial has no published results, and it does not remove devices from the early years classroom [1]. The point for a parent is narrower than the headlines: in Kindergarten to Year 2 the maths itself is mostly done with hands and objects, so that is where home practice should start.
How Noooli can help
Noooli offers short daily maths practice, about 10 minutes, for Kindergarten to Year 6, aligned to the Australian Curriculum, and parents can see their child's progress. The free printable worksheets at /worksheets/maths cover every primary year level with answer keys and need no sign-up.
References
1. ABC News, "WA primary school students to have less classroom screen time in Back to Basics trial", 12 October 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-12/wa-primary-school-student-screen-time-restrictions-2027/107256470
2. NSW Government, "Screentime limits in all public schools to lift our game in the classroom", ministerial release, 13 September 2026. https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/screentime-limited-from-next-year
3. Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, "Prep Mathematics: Australian Curriculum Version 9.0", 2023. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/aciqv9/mathematics/curriculum/ac9_maths_prep_as_cd_alignment.pdf
4. Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, "Year 1 Mathematics: Australian Curriculum Version 9.0", 2023. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/aciqv9/mathematics/curriculum/ac9_maths_yr1_as_cd_alignment.pdf
5. Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, "Year 2 Mathematics: Australian Curriculum Version 9.0", 2023. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/aciqv9/mathematics/curriculum/ac9_maths_yr2_as_cd_alignment.pdf
6. Australian Education Research Organisation, "Skills for future literacy and numeracy learning: Research summary", 7 September 2023, updated 19 March 2026. https://www.edresearch.edu.au/summaries-explainers/research-summaries/skills-future-literacy-and-numeracy-learning-research-summary
7. Grattan Institute, "The Maths Guarantee: How to boost students' learning in primary schools", 13 April 2025. https://grattan.edu.au/report/maths-guarantee/
Common questions
What maths should a child know by the end of Year 2?
By the end of Year 2 the Australian Curriculum expects children to order numbers to at least 1000, partition and rename two- and three-digit numbers, recall addition facts to 20 and related subtraction facts, count days between events on a calendar, and read an analogue clock to the quarter-hour.
Do young children need a device to practise maths?
No. Almost all Kindergarten to Year 2 maths content involves counting, sorting, grouping and comparing physical objects. Buttons, blocks, coins and food packets from the kitchen are enough for most activities, and printed worksheets cover the written number work without a screen.
How long should early years maths practice be at home?
Keep sessions short and regular rather than long and occasional. A few minutes most days suits children in Kindergarten to Year 2, and it is better to finish while your child is still interested than to continue until attention runs out entirely.
