Bean Counters - You will need clear packaging tape and large dry lima beans to make a bean counter. Place ten lima beans end to end in the middle of the tape as shown. Fold the top of the tape down, the bottom up, and seal. Trim off the ends. Children take the bean counter and place it on the end of the object to be measured. How many beans long is the object?
Have children record their measurements.
Ask children to find something in the room that is 2 beans long. Can they find something 5 beans? 10 beans? etc.
Put bean counters together and measure the length of the room, playground, and other large areas.
Seriate Snakes
Cut the yarn into 5 graduating pieces from 2” – 10”. Ask the children to put them in order from shortest to longest. Next, ask them to roll snakes” from play dough. Can they arrange them in order? Which one is longest? Shortest? Can they make two snakes that are the same length?
Use straws, cardboard rollers, or sticks to make similar games.
Have children order rocks, shells, books, and classmates from small to large.
Great Graphs - Draw off a grid on poster board and use it for some of these graphing activities:
| eye color, hair, etc. letters in name birthday month favorite pet favorite game favorite song, rhyme transportation to school weather type of shoe |
brothers and sisters |
Expose children to line graphs, picture graphs, bar graphs, pie graphs, and other visual representations.
People Graphs - You can also do “people” graphs where children sort into groups based on a particular attribute. For example: if you like chocolate ice cream stand in this corner…strawberry…vanilla…chocolate chip.
Photo Graphs - Mount photographs of children on 4” x 4” squares. Have children use their pictures for graphing activities.
Data Collectors - Let children collect data from friends and family using a T-chart. You could tie it in with a unit (Do you like dogs or cats?), sports events (Who will win March Madness?), favorite food (Do you like cheese pizza or pepperoni?), and so on. Let children tally their results on the board when they bring their data back to school.
Tilly Tally - Children can use pretzel sticks to tally as they sing this song to the tune of “Little Red Wagon”:
Put down a tally mark in a row.
Put down a tally mark in a row.
Tally, tally in a row,
Then put one across.
You can also stick up fingers as you sing and then bend your thumb across your palm to make five.
Check out these websites for more awesome math ideas!