Math Manipulative: Bean Counters {TUTORIAL}

It is so nice to be back on a schedule finally. While vacations are times to relax and enjoy, there still is a certain amount of stress involved in the planning, and there usually is (to some degree) a chaotic element to them. I think that this time, even my kids were happy to be back on a routine. My daughter even asked to do school this weekend!

So one of the activities we decided to do was make bean counters to help her as she began learning about number placement. Here's a quick and simple activity that most children can do on their own with minimal parental involvement...

Materials:

Beans (we used lima beans!)

Wood sticks/tongue depressors

Glue

1) Primero, gather your supplies...



2) Then you lay down a bead of glue on a stick.

3) Count out ten (10) beans.

4) Carefully attach the beans to the stick, and allow to dry.

5) Repeat steps 2 through 4, nine more times until you have ten (10) sticks each with ten (10) beans.

6) For learning time, count out nine (9) loose beans so that your child can learn to count the higher numbers.

Con mucho cariño...