Make Your Own Small Bead Frame or Abacus

During our Creative Math class today we made an Abacus, but not until I told the Story of Numbers. It was amazing! The kids just started building numbers. One way that they were able to remember what each number represented  was by choosing the color of their choice. It worked! I love it when I am able to understand a Montessori Material  so well that I can offer a twist to it for children who may be new to Montessori Education. I highly recommend this Math Project as a work choice at home or at school.

                                                                         

To make the Abacus you will need

• An assortment of colored beads. Each Abacus will need 4 different colors(40 beads)
• Coffee Stirrers
• Pipe cleaners
• Sharpies to label the numbers 1,10,100, 1000
• Plastic Corrugated Sheet. I brought our as a Blank Yard Sale Sign at Home Depot.

I found the inspiration for this project at Classroom DIY, you can also find instructions there that will be able to guide you to make the same model as the Montessori Small Bead Frame, or you can follow the instructions for a traditional Abacus.

                                                                        

                                                                         

                                                                            

For those of you that may not know what the Montessori Small Bead Frame looks like I included the photo above.

The Story of Numbers was awesome and for a minute I thought maybe I had something on my face, because the children's attention was so focused and they were watching every word coming out of my mouth.

Here's to a many of great math lessons! I think they caught the Math Bug!!

                                                                         

I am linking this post to Montessori Monday.