Activities With Jelly Beans for Kindergarten
Jelly beans provide an engaging prop for young children. Edible and sweet, jelly beans become part of lessons as rewards, color recognition guides or counting tools. Using a jelly bean activity for your kindergarten class helps teach them the basics with a fun learning tool.
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Counting With Jelly Beans
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As jelly beans come in all sorts of colors, they offer a way to teach counting and quantities to younger children. For example, a jelly bean line teaches kids basic counting and colors. Using two to three colors of jelly beans, place them in a long line, about 3 adult-size-feet long. Ask the kids what colors of jelly beans they see, and they give their answers. Then you ask how many blue jelly beans are there in the jelly bean line, and remove or add another color of jelly bean, asking each time how many jelly beans are left of a particular color.
Jelly Bean Crafts
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For artsy projects, jelly beans double for small eggs to make Easter basket decorations. You can cut out the shape of a bunny from white construction paper, creating one small bunny for each student to color. With craft sticks, crayons, pot or bowl, glue and fake Easter grass, kindergarten students create Easter egg patches with jelly beans. You can also create a jelly bean bag with popsicle sticks, white pompoms, fun foam, google eyes and jelly beans.
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Singing With Jelly Beans
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These activities involve singing, color recognition and counting. You display five large jelly bean cut-outs on a felt board, then recite a poem. According to Workofheart.com, the song goes, "Five little jelly beans, I wish I had more! I'll eat the red one, now there are four." Each time, the students choose which jelly bean should be removed. Another singing activity with jelly beans is "Who Took the Jelly Beans From the Jelly Bean Jar?" You ask the children to sit in a a circle clapping their hands to create a rhythm. Start by naming the first child -- then another child sings, going around the circle. This exercise helps introduce children to one another and play with a delicious treat.
Jelly Bean Rewards
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Offering jelly beans for completing homework or participating is a way to excite kindergartners to raise their hands and get involved with the class. With a large container of jelly beans on your teacher's desk or in a visible corner of the room, children see the jelly beans as a type of reward for good behavior. According to Education World, using candy as a reward system helps motivate students and helps promote good behavior.
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- Photo Credit jelly beans image by JJAVA from Fotolia.com
