making bead material

(Sara): I really love Montessori math. Unfortunately (or should I say, of course!) it's the most expensive category of materials to purchase, and time-consuming to make. Because I have had the hobby of making & repairing rosaries in the past, I had most of the tools needed to make bead material. I just haven't had much time.

Here's how I made my "golden bead" material. Yes, the beads are traditionally wooden, not black. But that's what I already had at home. I bought the wire at Walmart. Thread 10 beads on at a time,

and then make a 90 degree bend on the end of the wire, about 1/2 inch in length.

Use a needle-nose plier to bend the wire back the opposite way, forming a loop. Close it so the circle is snugly formed.

To make hundred squares, I wove wire around 10 of these, just enough to keep them snugly together. I made 1 large and 3 small sets of number cards on cardstock.

I have made the small bead stair in the same manner, using appropriately colored beads.

I have purchased other math materials, including number rods, the stamp game, addition strip board, multiplication and division boards, and squaring chains. I'm always happy to address questions on any of these materials.

M&M Math

(lynnette:) I remembered doing this in college when I was taking my "teaching math" course. It's not necessarily Montessori, but we had a lot of fun with it. So, I decided to do this with "C" one afternoon during snack time. I felt it would justify our M&M eating. :0) I didn't have this graph chart at the time, but I think it would have made it more clear for "C". I suppose you could also adapt it with jelly beans during Easter time.

First, she sorted by color. Then, we counted and labeled each color. Last, we talked about which had the most, the least, and the same.

golden beads,etc....

(Sara:) welcome aboard, Lynnette! I know you've been busy with your move. I just want to tell you ladies that the past couple weeks I have not felt well - zero energy - and unlike most of you, I don't have pregnancy to blame it on (well, I'm pretty sure...) I finished a strong round of antibiotics last week and since then I have been completely wiped out. I've done some "golden bead" Montessori math with C., and that's about it! Just trying to stay sane. So if you don't see many posts from me for a while, that's why. I'll try to catch up when I can.

The golden bead materials are great. I didn't really understand how many extensions they can be used for until Karen's albums showed me. We've been adding numbers like 582+316... then moved on to adding with regrouping like 649+485. Then we subtracted & multiplied numbers in the hundreds. And this is just for fun! It isn't "school work" or anything he has to do! I have a haunch that doing "big" numbers like this, from the beginning, will make doing math on paper less intimidating later.

Finally, just wanted to share this idea: I've read that in "real" Montessori schools, the school room gets emptied out at the beginning of each new year. I fell in love with this idea, and plan on clearing off all our shelves in January when we begin a new year in our home. (That is, if we're still living here. Still don't know about that yet.) I think there are many advantages to this. Plus ds # 2 will be turning 3, and I'll need to make room for his work also. Hopefully I'll be full steam by then...

Math!

(Sara:) Today I did a math presentation with C. for the first time in quite a while. I am mostly using Karen's albums. There are 215 presentations in there, and they follow a sequence. Today we did the 100 chain with arrows. Tomorrow we're going to tackle the 1000 chain (a very long project!) during T's nap.

I got the chain (along with the 1000 chain & wooden box) for $36 @ Alison's. (This was one of my "big" purchases last year.) I also purchased the arrows there (including 2 plastic continers), for $15. The arrows I could have made, but it would have been quite tedious & time consuming, which I'm just not in the mood for right now! I have already made 10 bead & 100 bead squares myself, and that was a big time sucker, but cheap, as I already had almost all the materials on hand. I'd be happy to show pictures of these upon request.