These math activities with water beads is a great way for kids to learn math, have fun, and even enjoy a sensory activity! They can even explore colors and sorting! Turns out these activities with water beads can be used to help your child explore the world. Kids of all ages like toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarten kids will love this educational math activity.
Math Activities With Water Beads
Have you discovered water beads yet?
They are polymers, also called gel beads, that start off as tiny little balls and expand to much bigger balls as they absorb water. They’re often found in florist stores or the home decor aisle of stores – and they’re great for all sorts of play.
As they grow their texture changes from dry and hard to super tactile and wobbly, just right for sensory play. They’re good in sensory tubs or science experiments but also versatile to be used in math games.
Related: Check out these super fun and awesome educational math games for kids.
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Supplies Needed For This Math Water Bead Activity
You don’t need a whole lot to play these water bead math games, you need a couple of things, and 2/3 of them are optional:
Optional:
How To Play Water Bead Math Games
The simplest way to use them for math games is just to count them. They’re so tactile and fun to handle they make the counting lots of fun.
You can also use them to work on classification, grouping and shapes. Take a mixed pack of the water beads so you have a few different colors and combine them with some containers. Choose containers that are different shapes and sizes and you have a math game ready to play.
- Can you sort all the yellow beads into one pot? The blue ones into another?
- How many orange beads do you have?
- Have your got more blue water beads or orange water beads?
- Can you fill the round container with one color, the square one with another and the rectangle with another?
- Do you need more water beads to fill the round tub or the square tub?
More Math Games With Water Beads
You can also use the water beads to make shapes, or rank them into lines of different colors and lengths. Can you make a stripy triangle with one pink water bead, two purple, three yellow and so on?
The water beads are so squishy and roly-poly that there are likely to be lots of giggles as you play your math games – and everyone learns so much more when they’re having fun!
More Activities With Water Beads From Kids Activities Blog
Check out some other great Quirky Momma ideas for playing and learning with water beads:
There are so many great math and sensory water bead activities.
- Check out this Ocean Sensory Bin!
- Absorption Experiment – ok, this uses that gel stuff in diapers and not water beads but it’s kind of the same idea.
- Check out these cool math games!
- We have 12 more super cool math games for kids!
- You’re gonna love these water bead sensory bins.
- Water Bead and Flower Sensory Tub
- You can learn math with a paper fortune teller.
- Learn fractions using food! Math has never been so tasty.
Have you tried these math activities with water beads?
I have been seeing water bead activities all over pinterest and have been wanting to do something with them. This will be a great way to teach my son counting and separating colors. Thanks for another great idea.
I wanted to use these with my preschoolers who are 3-4 years old. I am just worried that I would buy the wrong kind. I see some in jars at Michael’s that are in water. Are they the ones to buy?