Show your toddlers a bean bag with a number written or sewn on it. Ask them what the number is on the bean bag. If they cannot identify the number, tell them what it is. Then ask a volunteer to put or throw the bean bag into the bucket or box that has the same number written on it. When all the bean bags have been sorted, count with your toddlers, pointing to each bucket or box as you say its number.
Set out bean bags of different shapes and colors. Show your toddlers a pattern of bean bags, such as a blue square, a red circle and another blue square. Ask them what comes next. Tell them to add the next bean bag in the pattern.
Count bean bags with your toddlers. Throw bean bags (or have a volunteer throw them) into a basket or box, counting as you go along. When you are finished throwing the bean bags, empty them out of the box and count them again.
Select a small bean bag and a large bean bag from a pile of bean bags of different shapes and sizes. Show the two bean bags to the toddlers. Ask them which is bigger and which is smaller. Ask a volunteer to go get a big and a little bean bag from the pile you set out and to bring them back to you. Model the activity a few times to help them understand what you want them to do.
Put bean bags of different sizes on a table or on the floor. Show your toddlers how to order them from smallest to largest or largest to smallest. Ask your toddlers to do the same thing. Toddlers begin to understand how to order objects according to size in their second year.
Draw shapes or numbers on a piece of science-fair-grade poster board. Color them. They should match the shapes, colors and numbers of your bean bags. Give each toddler a bean bag and tell him to throw his bean bag at the shape or number on the poster board that looks like the one on his bean bag.
Sort bean bags with your toddlers. Put blue ones, ones in the shape of a triangle, and ones with the number "2" on them in separate piles, for example.