Toddler Activity: Counting Beans

Last week I was looking for a 20 minute activity for Shane to do before bedtime. He has been excelling with counting and phonemic awareness lately so I tried to incorporate one of those areas of interest into our evening. When asked, Shane wanted to work on counting so we made a little game that reminded me of Hi, Ho, Cherry O in that we had a given number and counting was involved. We used what we had on had which was a dice, muffin tin, and some beans and Shane loved rolling and counting. He stayed fixed on this game for about 30 minutes and for a 2 (almost 3) year old I will count that a success! If your toddler needs a little help with counting one to one and fine motor skills as well as practice taking turns this activity will be a great one for you.

Supplies

30 or so dry beans, any kind

muffin tin

dice

Directions

1. Each player will roll the dice to determine who goes first. The highest number rolled will go first.

2. The first player rolls the dice. Count the number of beans out that corresponds with the rolled number on the dice. For example, if a two is rolled, count out two beans and  place the beans into one muffin cup.

3. The second player will repeat step 2, rolling, counting, and placing the beans into a muffin cup.

4. Continue taking turns and repeating step two until all the muffin cups on the muffin tin are filled. The game is over when you run out of muffin cups.

*For an extension activity you can have two kinds of beans and count who has the most beans at the end of the game.