A completed Bird's Eye View of the decimal system

Maria Montessori developed truly wonderful materials for teaching mathematics to children. One material in the Montessori pre-elementary classrooms are the Golden Beads. Beginning with individual beads, about the size of a small pearl, the children count from one unit to ten units. Then they learn that ten units can be combined into a Ten Bar. Ten tens make one-hundred and ten hundreds are equal to one-thousand. When a child can successfully manage building a variety of quantities of Golden Beads, he is introduced to the Bird's Eye View of the decimal system. In this activity the child places the Golden Beads from one-unit to nine-thousand and their corresponding numeral cards in numerical order on a large mat. This activity requires mental concentration and physical coordination. The stack of nine-thousand cubes often reaches a young child's hip! When the child is finished there is a great feeling of accomplishment.

Published 09/06/2010

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