BEADS STAIR- MONTESSORI

The short bead stair is a montessori material that helps children concretise their understanding of quantity, as they can hold it, count it, and arrange it. … So, you may model using the chopstick to push the bead up and away from the rest, pointing at each bead and counting slowly. It assists the children in memorizing the colors of each Bead Bar and its associated quantity. This is a preliminary activity necessary for more advanced work later.

Materials
– One short bead stair – 1 red, 2 green, 3 pink, 4 yellow, 5 light blue, 6 purple, 7 white, 8 brown, 9 dark blue.
– Nine bars of ten.
Age
4 1/2 years onwards

Presentation
Perform this individual exercise at the table. Lay out the felt mat and invite the child to count the beads on each bar, starting with the one Bead Bar from the Short Bead Stair. Lay the bars into a triangle as you build this shape.

 

. Have the child repeat as before, placing it directly above bead bar 1 and centered. Bring attention to the color.
Repeat for bead bar 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
Teens-Quanity–

Take out the ten-bars and review these with the child.
Place a ten-bar vertically at the top of the cloth.
Place the one-bar directly to the right of the ten-bar.
Count with the child, beginning with at the bottom of the ten-bar and adding, as you point to the one-bar: “Eleven.
Take out the ten bars and review these with the child.
Place a ten-bar vertically at the top of the cloth.
Place the one-bar directly to the right of the ten-bar.
Count with the child, beginning with at the bottom of the ten-bar and adding, as you point to the one-bar: “Eleven.

Have the child create the numbers 11-13. Do a Three Period Lesson for 11-13.
Then repeat for 14-16 and 17-19. Finish each Three Period Lesson with the numbers in order.

 

Ask the child to make 12.
Have the child verify by counting.
Then have the child make 16 to the right of 12. Check by counting.

Ask the child to make each teen number possible, one at a time. Keep 11 as the last number created.
Discuss with the child how many of the numbers have the word “teen” in them. Review some of the numbers that have the word teen in it.
Tell the child that the word “teen” means there is a ten in the number.
Look at different examples such as seven-teen. “That means that there is a 7 and a 10.”
After a few examples, look at 11 and say that this however doesn’t have the word teen in it.
Have the child mix the bead bars and then create numbers 11-19 in order.
Do a Three-Period Lesson.

When the triangle is complete, show the child the shape made. Her visual memory may help her to self-correct when she builds the stair.
Replace the colored bead bars in your container and invite the child to have a turn.

Ideas
As the child performs this exercise, she learns that colors are associated with numbers. You can use the Three Period Lesson if the child has difficulty remembering the corresponding numbers of the bead bars. Show the child any single bar and ask her to count the beads in it, then ask her to tell you the name of the color. Introduce two further bars one at a time, either on the mat or in the palm of your hand, pointing at each of the bar’s beads to count them.

“Only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity.” Maria Montessori in The Absorbent Mind