About this game

The balanced scale

The balanced scale: a free Kindergarten math game for ages 5-6. Each round draws 5 questions; instructions are read aloud and every answer is checked and explained.

How it plays and why it helps

A balanced scale is the one that seems to do nothing. The balanced scale, a Kindergarten game, asks your child to find it among four. Each card shows four scales holding ducks, apples, lemons, carrots, butterflies, strawberries, balls or fish, and three of them tip to one side. Your child taps the scale whose pans sit level. Five cards make a round, the instruction is read aloud, and every answer is checked and explained: each pan holds a duck, so they weigh the same.

Balance is the first idea of equal weight. When both pans stay at the same height, the two sides weigh the same, and the hint says to look for exactly that. Here the balanced scale always carries two identical objects, which makes the rule visible: same thing, same weight, level pans.

A new word trips children here. Some think balanced means the scale working hardest, with one side pushed down low, and every wrong card tips. Crouch to screen height and ask, "Are both pans at the same height?" Praise the steady look: "You checked both sides before you tapped."

Aligned with

  • K.MD.A.1 Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.
  • K.MD.A.2 Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of"/"less of" the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.

▲ Back to the game