The Primary classroom is brimming with energy. Children can be focused and consistent workers if the environment enables it.
A 4.5 year old child has picked out the ‘Short Bead Chain’ work. This is an arithmetic activity that familiarizes children with the idea of squaring. He is working with the chain of 10. This means he is working to understand the concept of 10^2 = 100.
Children in the classroom know the sequence of their activities very well. He brings his mat, brings his box of material, lays the chain and then starts to count each bead. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and he puts the first arrow of 10. He continues to count 11,12….until 20 and then puts the arrow of 20. He goes on counting till he has counted till 100. There he places the arrow of 100 and then places the square of 100. Ten 10 bars do make a square that equal 100. His directress quickly scans his work as she walks by and knows now that this child has understood how to work with the square of 10. The child takes a look at his work. He feels satisfied. He places each piece of the material one by one on the tray. He takes the tray back to the shelf and places the material back just as he found it.
This work initiates the child’s lessons in skip counting. Going forward this child will work on squares of 2s, 3s, 4s all the way up to 9s. As he works each day and counts the chains and places the arrows he will now memorize the combinations. This material leads him to multiplication work and the cube chains too where he will work with the idea of (n)^3.
A conventional school tackles the idea of squaring and cubing not before middle school. How can Montessori children understand it so early? How can they enjoy working with such complex ideas at this age? Well, the answer is that they don’t find it complex at all. The Montessori material and the sequence in which each aspect of learning is presented allows a child to understand seemingly complex ideas with ease.
When this child goes into Elementary School he builds on these ideas further.
For those inspired to read more, you might find this writeup interesting:
https://hollismontessori.org/blog/2018/3/19/montessori-basics-how-math-progresses-through-the-levels
Hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you’d like to share your ideas do comment here or write to me at ashani@davincimontessori.com
~Ashani