1. Overview

The “Jelly Bean Guessing Contest” develops basic estimation skills and practices counting from 1 to 100.

Guess how many are in the jar!
“Guess how many!”
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2. Materials

  • Jar
  • 100 Jelly beans, buttons, pennies, beans, chips, etc.
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    3. Activity

    Place around 100 buttons into a jar. This game works best with several players, such as your family, a group of friends, or students. Ask a group of players to guess how many buttons are in the jar.

    Referee: How many buttons are in this jar?
    Child: Fifty!
    Mom: Sixty-six!
    Dad: Seventy-one!

    Take out all the buttons, tell your child to count them, and ask whose guess wins.

    Referee: [Takes out all buttons] How many buttons are in this jar?
    Child: One, two, three…eighty-three!
    Referee: Good job! Whose number is closest to eighty-three?
    Child: Dad!
    Referee: Dad wins!

    Give the winner a prize to motivate careful guessing. Repeat the game with a different number of items.

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