marbles

There are many different types of counters that are useful for teaching children how to count. The most effective counter set I’ve ever used is a simple bag of marbles. A bag of marbles and a few paper cups is enough to get any class excited about counting.

Pass out some empty paper cups. Count together as you give each child their marbles (3-5 for very young learners upwards of 20 for older students). Toss and count marbles into cups. Hold them up high, count and drop them into the cups. Pass one marble at a time down a line by pouring it into and out of each cup until it reaches one student’s cup or your cup. Then, count how many marbles were passed along to that cup.

Pour cups of counted marbles into another cup to practice simple additions. Pass those along 10 at a time, then 20 Add to the cup by 5s or 10s and pass them down the line, making the goal not to spill the cup of marbles as it gets fuller.

For an older class, try passing one marble at a time around the circle BUT don’t wait for each marble to make it around to the final cup before starting the next. Start the next marble off immediately. The students are then hearing two or three numbers being shouted simultaneously and must keep track of their own counting at the same time. (This was super fun activity for a class of 2nd graders I had today-they caught onto the challenge right away and went with it).

If your marbles have distinctive colors, sort them by color, then count the number of each color.

If you have marbles of different size, sort by size, then count the number of each size.