We stole this idea from Family Fun today and made beanbag balls with numbers on them to help us with math. I let my son take photos today instead of me so we got “Photography” into homeschooling today too.
We used our balloon beanbags for addition, subtraction and discussing numerical placement.
First we started with Stuffmart's lentils and a balloon we'd inflated for about 30 seconds and then allowed to deflate.
Then we filled the balloon with the beans using a funnel.
Then we cut off the tip of the neck of the balloon.
Then we cut off the entire neck of the 2nd balloon and the 3rd balloon and put them around the 1st balloon. This makes the finished product nice and thick.
And here's the one of the finished products.
We used 12 inch balloons because we couldn't find 11 inch balloons and they worked just fine. The larger you inflate the balloon prior to filling the larger your beanbag will be. I liked the larger ones better. Practice makes perfect. The directions from Family Fun are available on their link I included above. Let me know if you try it. We used about 3 bags of lentils to make 12 balloons so buy accordingly.
Have fun.
Julie
Question: Once you’ve made them (assuming I ever got over my craft-o-phobia to get that far), how do you use them?
My poor children… they don’t get crafts, fun math games, or lapbooks.
I think I’m going to go reread my last long post again. *laughter*
Looks likes fun! Even though I love our teenagers and the stages they are in, I miss doing the little crafty projects when they were younger. Enjoy these times Julie, they grow up soooooo fast.
Have a great day!!!
Julie D.
I may have to mke these for our numbers instead of the bean bags. They are very cool! Thnks for sharing!