We have been working with the Montessori Additions Charts. For those who may not be familiar with this material, it is used to aid in the memorization of addition facts.
These charts were a free download from Livable Learning. I backed ours in red card stock and laminated. You can check out this post showing all of the memorization materials we have put together.
Xander uses a math journal for all of his work. He writes out all of his problems, and this does a couple of things for him. It gives him a tremendous amount of number writing practice, and tons of experience writing out numbers in problem form. I love that about Montessori.
We went through all boards and lessons. Now we play games in between with the boards. We use dice to create problems, and an egg timer to see how many he can get. He uses various boards to check his answers. We also roll one die as a control, and he rolls the second to get facts for that number.
Some of our games include rolling or choosing problems (from our equation tile box), and if he knows the answer without hesitation he doesn't write it and can throw it into a pile and keep going!!
It is awesome to watch him having so much fun.
This is the finger hop chart, he LOVES this one .
Above he is checking out duplicate sums on the board. We talked about odd and even addends even+even = even, odd+odd=even, odd+even =odd.
We are using the Montessori Research & Development Early Childhood Math Manual that covers all memorization materials and lessons.
The materials for memorization in our manual are as follows...
Addition Strip board
Chart Work
Oral Games
Snake Game
Bead Bar Work
Formats for Problems, Multiple addends, Commutative and Associative law, Story Problems.
This (for the most part) repeats for all operations - other than there are bead boards for multiplication and division instead of strip boards, as used with addition and subtraction. The Multiplication sequence includes several other materials and is the longest sequence.
He records the operation, and chart of his choice at the top of his journal pages , great additional writing practice!!
Xander is really enjoying the variety, fun and games these materials offer him.
We are looking forward to getting into our elementary Fractions, Geometry and Decimal Manuals. We have made our introductions to Fractions, and Geometry to this point.
If you wish to see some what we have done in our math studies to this point, you can check out the following posts. If there are specific materials or operations you are looking for please pop them into our search bar.
Please visit and "like" us for updates on our
Facebook Page! We share photos and
updates of what we are up to there!
We love to hear from you!!
If you have any questions for us comment... ASK!!
Visit us on Pinterest as well!!
Don't forget to check out our Montessori
Subscribe to Making Montessori Ours to get all of our
latest updates by email & Subscribers FREE Printable List.
You always have great math work going on! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you!!! I love checking in on you guys to see what you are up to...it's always pretty amazing:))
DeleteWow! Thank you for the link to the freebies!! Much prettier then the ones I paid for!
ReplyDeleteYes!! I did see others to print, but was so pleased with the quality of these for free!!! They are a little expensive to buy all sets in wood.
DeleteHi Cherine! Just wanted to ask you about the finger charts. Since there are 3 finger charts, when would be the time to move from chart 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI think that depends on your child. Xander moved through the charts quickly. We followed our MR&D Manual and completed the excercises for the charts, and then used them in our own way.I did not use the charts early on (not say you should not) because Xander was much more interested in Golden Beads and other work. We did use the Srip Boards early on and then revisit them with tables work, but in homeschooling you can choose to use these materials the way it works for you. We are still working with the charts and tables work (inconjunction with elementary work) because he is interested now, and there are many concepts and relationships between operations that he is understanding now. His favorite is using the Decanomial Bead box for tables work especially Multiplication. Not sure if that was helpful, but I hope :) I have a back log of posts coming showing much more of this work - I hope soon! You are doing such amazing work, and are such a pleasure to visit on your blog btw!!
DeleteThank you! And thank you so much for these insights. I always visit your site for ideas and inspiration as can relate much since we both have boys though mine is only 5. But your posts are treasures for those who are just starting :) Just excuse me whenever I pop up some questions. That's my guess as well... you never really graduate from one material in Montessori. You keep coming back.
DeleteI just wish that Montessori materials here in Europe would be a little bit more affordable and cheaper. Homemade materials are a good alternative but they're quite time consuming to make.
DeletePlease ask away!! I do not have all the answers, but I will do my best to help in any way I can:) It has been our experience that the kids do move back and forth frequently. This is a learning journey for us as well!!
DeleteI am sorry that they are not :( There is not much in Canada either that is afordable, but we can order from the US fairly easily. Even if you can get this for a good cost in Canada most can't afford the high shipping costs :( Handmade can be time consuming thats for sure! I certainly burned myself out more than once trying to keep up.
Delete