The first thing little Bernadette noticed when she walked into the Montessori classroom was the open wooden case of colorful beaded chains hanging on the wall. She hurried over on her short, stockinged legs and reached a tiny finger up to touch the pink beads dangling in front of her sparkling eyes.
“What are these?”
“Those are the chains,” I answer.
“Can I do this?”
“Not yet, we need to do some other things first. But yes, some day for sure,” I reassure her.
“I like them!”
“Yes,” I smile, “I bet you are going to work with these chains a LOT when you start on them.”
I gently take her hand and lead her over to a low shelf to pick out a practical life activity to get her started on for her first day. When Bernadette has developed the ability to concentrate, basic physical control and has begun to count past ten, I will give her the first lesson with the chains. This will probably happen when she is about four and a half. For now, we have many other things to do in preparation. But it’s wonderful to see the desire and intrigue that being around these materials gives a young child. This three year old will enjoy seeing older children working with these beads, and she’ll be very motivated to tackle them when her turn comes.
Tom, age five, comes into the room, greets me, hangs up his coat, then goes straight to the chain cabinet to pick up where he left off yesterday; he decided to review every chain and count them all, one through 100 for the set of short chains, and one through 1,000 for the set of long chains! I admire his ambition, and whether or not he decides to stick with it, he is enjoying this stage- he counted all ten of the short chains and got through the first three long chains yesterday.
Tom starts by laying out a rug, then lifts the yellow “fours” chain, one tiny metal ring at a time, onto his outstretched hand. He turns and holds the dangling chain high so it doesn’t drag on the floor as he walks it over to the rug. He lowers the chain in sections, carefully unwinding it so it does not tangle, and takes a moment to straighten it out to its full length on the rug.
Tom goes back to the chain cabinet and brings the small box of corresponding number tickets to his rug (also yellow, to match). He scatters the tickets on the rug and lines them up so he can read their small printed numbers. Then he begins counting one bead at a time with his forefinger: “one, two, three, four…” he searches for the /4/ number ticket and places it at the bead, then counts, “five, six, seven, eight…” and finds the /8/ ticket. He then lays on his stomach and continues, until he has counted to the end, which is the cube of four. He goes back to the cabinet and brings four squares made of yellow beads and places them at each of the fourth fours, and the cube made of yellow beads at the end.
When he’s finished, he comes to me and asks if I’ll come hear him say the numbers. I bring Bernadette with me to watch Tom walk the length of chain one step at a time and read off his tickets: “Four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty, twenty eight…wait…” he searches the number tickets and realizes he reversed two of them and he fixes it and goes back and resumes: “twenty-four, twenty-eight, thirty-two, thirty-six, forty, forty-four, forty-eight, fifty-two, fifty-six, sixty, sixty-four!” His voice gets louder on the last few numbers and he bounces up on his toes on the finale and smiles at me. “So fun, that’s great,” I say, and Bernadette and I leave while Tom starts to clean up to do the next chain.
This skip-counting gives children preparation for multiples and another dynamic way to learn and practice multiplication facts and understand the mathematical world. It also sets them up to explore and understand squares and cubes of numbers, and for the act of squaring and cubing numbers when they are older. So many aspects of math can be tackled with just one material and all its uses, beginning with the act of linear counting, and then progressing through lessons in increments over several years, all the way up to cubing numbers around age 8!
The next time you see that wooden cabinet of beautiful, colorful bead chains hanging on a classroom wall, maybe you’ll see what Bernadette saw: ingenius magical ways for exploring math!
For more descriptions of children using Montessori materials and their meanings, click here: The Montessori Potential.
Oh the magic and curiousity at that age: small moments like that keep us UE teachers going but it can be fleeting. Thank you for reminding me of the continuum and the magic that flows all the way through.