Montessori Math: Part One

Today we begin a blog series on Montessori Math. For our first addition we will be discussing Montessori Math in the Primary years.

The Montessori Math program at FMS is a pathway to a deep, concrete and useful relationship with the power and recognition of numbers and their corresponding values. One of the early math works for our primary aged students are found in using the sandpaper numbers. The student feels the rough impression of the number on their finger tips, while the teacher is saying the name of the number.

As the primary-aged student begins to understand the correspondence between the number and the quantity, they have elevated their understanding to a new level of mastery.

Within the primary aged classroom, the Montessori math materials create an array of tools that solidify the child’s grasp of recognizing 1-10, the concept of 0, recognizing and creating teens and tens, and then being able to put the whole picture together by doing the 100 board.

Seeing the child connect the concept of counting 10 on a ten bar and then adding 1 single red bed to now create 11, is a milestone in their development.

Number chains afford the student the opportunity to count the beads and see the patterns emerge, such as the “2 chain” which is made up of two sets of two beads. Number chains are eventually used to demonstrate skip counting (i.e. counting by twos). Each number 1-10 has its own unique chain.

As the primary aged student learns about the golden beads, they are able to do the decimal layout and tangibly work with place value of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands.

This is truly a stepping point for the students because once this is mastered, they are now ready for performing the operation of addition (4 digits), followed by multiplication, subtraction and division.

Eventually, golden beads are replaced with the stamp game. The stamp game is made of color coded wooden tiles representing units, tens, hundreds and thousands. The work is used to do the operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division; affording the student the same advantage of using golden bead materials to solve the problems (and reallysee place value), but in a more contained manner.

 

Join us on Thursday we discuss Montessori Math in the Lower and Upper Elementary Years.