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Showing posts from December, 2011

The Bead Cabinet

Maria Montessori couldn't believe the little children in San Lorenzo were stealing her rosary beads. She tried hard to imagine how they could be so disrespectful. Then one day Maria observed as 2 children took her rosary and began to count the beads, then broke the rosary apart and re strung it in sets of ten! She decided to create the bead cabinet. The bead cabinet is made of these 4 parts: 1. Short bead chains 1-10. The beads are strung in 1 set of 1, 2 sets of 2, 3 sets of 3...etc. mathematically they represent numbers- squared and shapes triangle through decagon 2. Numbers-squared 1-10. If a child accordion folds a short bead chain, the result matches with a bead square. This activity can be done with children as young as 3. When bead squares are stacked 10-1, children have a concrete representation of the sum of squares (s.o.s.) 3. Long bead chains 1-10.   These chains represent numbers cubed.  4. Numbers-cubed 1-10. If a child accordion folds a long bead chain,

Next Phase

Period 2, Language, Math, Culture  PERIOD 2 :: LANGUAGE Classified Pictures exercises (3) & (4) Stage (4) of Ispy Exercise (1) with the single-letter Sandpaper Letters Metal Insets Frequent speech questioning PERIOD 2 :: MATH Bead work Geometry 1-1 counting Counting by 10's PERIOD 2 :: CULTURE Land and Water exercises First Maps "Places" Classified Pictures Preliminary work for classification by leaf - adapted from "maybe montessori"