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Sorting Beans

How you can help at home: Here's a game to help your kindergartner build math and problem-solving skills.
     

    This game reinforces the child's ability to sort, categorize, see patterns, add, subtract and count. Kindergarten is a time for children to explore using each of their five senses. Part of this process is developing a problem-solving mentality and learning to take risks.

    What you'll need:

    • One bag dried mixed beans
    • Graph paper with one-inch squares
    • Pencil or crayon

    Here's how to do it

    Take a bag of mixed dried beans. Place a piece of graph paper with one-inch squares on a table or flat surface and give your child a small container of beans. Ask your child to sort the beans by one of the following traits: Color (this would be expected by the beginning of kindergarten), shape or size.

    Have your child place the groups of beans onto graph paper - one bean per square, and ask her which group of beans has the most. As your child progresses, ask her to add two groups together and write down the number total of the two groups. Or you can have your child put the colored beans into a repeating pattern.

    Nicola Salvatico was the Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year in 2005.

     
    By Nicola Salvatico, Consulting Teacher
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    Comments from GreatSchools.net readers

    01/14/2009:
    "Thank you for a wonderful and easy way to teach and play"
    11/14/2005:
    "We do this activity with beads and we use an icecube tray instead of graph paper. My child is only three and he LOVES this activity. He calls it a game!"
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