The Blue Bean Game

Take math off the page and into the real world. This simple game gives kindergarten kids practice with basic addition.

What You Need:

• large lima beans
• blue spray paint
• small cup (3-ounce bathroom cups work well for this activity)
• small index cards or paper
• blue crayon
• stapler or heavy string

What You Do:

Set It Up: Before playing this game with your child, you’ll need to spray paint the lima beans on one side only. (When you’re finished, one side of each bean should be blue and the other side should be white.)

Pause for a Quick Refresher: In the Blue Bean Game, children learn the different ways a number can be expressed as the sum of two addends. Need a quick brush up on early math vocabulary? An addend is simply a number that’s being added.  A sum is what you get when you add numbers together, in other words, the answer to the problem.

Get Your Child Involved: Ask your child to place five beans in the paper cup, shake the cup to mix up the beans, and then toss the contents onto the table. Give her the blue crayon and ask her to draw the beans she sees on a piece of paper or index card: how many are blue and how many are white. For example, if your child’s toss shows 4 beans facing blue side up, and 1 bean showing its white side, she should color 4 beans blue and leave one blank, or white. Repeat this process, allowing your child to continue tossing the five beans from the cup until she thinks she’s discovered all of the ways to make 5.