Magic Shell Game

Test your talent as a con artist—it probably pays better than teaching.

Objectives

Children between the ages of 4 and 4 ½ years old can count to 5 and answer how many shells Cog. IIIC
Children between the ages of 2 and 2 ½ years can put a small object under a cone Cog. IIIC
And children age 2 can understand and follow single directions, “put the ___ under the ____” Lang. IA
Children of all ages can participate in sharing and getting acquainted.

 
 
 

Materials

Pennies or tokens; 3 cones or something to conceal objects (a block, number, shape, letter) under.

Procedures

1. Ask each child how many pennies (s)he wants. Count them out and pass them over. Each child counts his/her pennies.

2. Teacher recreates the "shell game" by switching cones around. Each child in turn guesses which cone hides the object.

3. Whether or not the child guesses correctly, (s)he always gets a penny after each turn and again counts the pennies. After each child has a pile of pennies, other children (instead of teacher) pass pennies to the guesser.