The Pythagoras Square introduces children to the foundational concept of geometry and the Pythagorean theorem in an intuitive and interactive way. This beautiful material is designed to help children explore the relationships between numbers, geometric shapes, and the Pythagorean Theorem — a^2+b^2=c^2. (Click for how this happens and the full photos!)
Our friends really thrive and feel accomplished while embracing their independence as they work with the Montessori materials within the class. The child feels so proud to have put together the Birds Eye View. This is an activity that involves counting through units, tens, hundreds and thousands – from 1 to 9000!
After being introduced to the decimal system via the golden bead materials and number cards, the child combines the two: symbols and quantities. The child will display all the units and the corresponding cards followed by tens, hundreds, and thousands, displaying the hierarchy of the decimal system. The child has an overview or a bird’s eye view of the golden beads and numeral cards together. (Please click for more information.)
The second, third and fourth levels of the snake Game have a child converting a coloured bead bar snake into a golden 10 bar snake. In the second level, the snake is evenly divisible by ten and the child counts the beads and makes a golden snake equaling the number of coloured beads in the coloured Snake. (Click to find out how they check their work and for the full photos.)
Children in Casa are introduced to quantities, numerals and counting up to the thousands. The materials help children to understand math concepts and recognize numerical sequences, patterns, and their relationships. Working with Math materials in a Montessori program helps children to make learning impressions in their mind by moving from the concrete to the abstract. (Please click for full photos.)
These beautiful bead chains are hung from a wooden frame that holds squares and the cubes of one to ten with the corresponding chains and the containers with the respective coloured arrows. The chains are used for skip counting (for example counting by fives) and for learning the squares and cubes of the numbers one to ten. This activity is very useful because the child learns how to skip count as well as how to count in bases other than ten, which indirectly prepares them for multiplication. (Please click for full photos and more information.)
The initial play relies on previous knowledge and experience with the units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes. The child receives a verbal request to bring one of the four quantities. As the child becomes more familiar with the game, the teacher will increase the challenge by including 2, 3 and finally all 4 quantities as the child learns to use the decimal placement mat to place the material in its corresponding places. (Please click for the full photos.)
The Bead Chains are found in the Bead Cabinet; two different chains for each number, 1-10. The first chain breaks down the number squared, and the second chain breaks down the number cubed. Accompanying each chain is a square or a cube, respectively. When a child uses the Bead Chains for skip counting, they lay the chain on a mat and use corresponding numbered arrow tags to count out the chain, in multiples of its particular number. (Please click for more information).
A child in a Montessori class learns mathematical facts by actually performing the operations with concrete materials, such as this division board. Green skittles, which represent the divisor, and the beads, which represent the quantity, are used for simple division. (Please click for more information and the full photos.)
The Hundred Board is an activity that involves placing 100 white tiles with the numbers 1-100 written on them onto a blue board that is sectioned into 100 squares. Since the blue squares are blank, the child has to place the tiles (which are mixed up) on the appropriate squares until they have achieved the correct sequence. There is a control sheet with numbers for the child to check his/her work or to use as a guide. This is a great activity for children to learn sequence of numbers 1-100, as well as recognizing the numbers that go between 10’s, 20’s and 30’s. One of the activities a child may do afterwards is cutting and gluing numbers or writing the numbers out to make their own hundred board, just as Barrett is doing in the picture.