Bean Thirteen

This weeks book we have read and had fun with is Bean Thirteen. The readers meet Ralph and Flora who are insects. They are picking beans for dinner. Flora goes to pick bean number 13 and Ralph shouts, Don’t do it!. Ralph believes bean 13 is unlucky. They try to split the beans evenly for dinner, but to no avail. There is always one left over. Will they come up with a solution to their problem?

We loved this book not only for its bright illustrations, but because is teaches math skills. This book specifically goes through division. Little Chef K is 4 1/2 and just starting addition, so this is what we focused on. The book teaches that fair is when we all get what we truly need. There are many opportunities for discussion, with your kids, in the book Bean Thirteen.

For a fun activity, I grabbed some tongue depressors and a piece of paper. For Little Chef K I wrote beginner addition problems. Use the tongue depressors for each number so it is more visual as your smaller chefs are learning how to add. You can also do this for subtraction.

For division you would need 13 tongue depressors and 7 plates. Use the plates and the tongue depressors as you read Bean Thirteen. For example, you will start with 2 plates, one for Ralph and one for Flora. You will separate the beans (tongue depressors) onto the plates. This is a great activity to work on division, and learning about remainders. You can also write division problems, as shown in the above picture, for your older Chefs.

I also found some great activities on the authors website, Matt McElligott. Here he has Bean Math, Invite a Bug to Dinner, No More Beans, and The Disappearing Bean.