The Abacus: counting on the abacus

How do we count on the abacus?

The directress begins by telling the child that they are going to be counting the beads on the abacus. She reminds him of the units, tens, hundreds, and thousands, and tells the child that when they start, they always start counting from the left-hand side.

She begins counting the units, “one unit, two units, three units, four units and so on…” on reaching 10 units the directress reminds the child that they can change 10 green-unit beads for 1 blue 10 bead. She brings one blue-ten bead across and pushes the 10 green unit-beads back to the left-hand side.

The child is encouraged to count the tens, and on reaching 10 tens the directress reminds him that they can change ten 10-blue beads for one hundred bead, the child brings forward one 100-red bead and pushes the 10-blue beads back to the left-hand side.

The child continues in the same manner, counting the red hundred beads and on reaching 10, the child changes 10-red beads for 1000 green-bead. He brings one 1000-green bead forward and pushed the 10-red hundreds back.

The child then counts the 1000’s and is told to stop once he reaches 10 thousand and the directress tells him, “we cannot change 10 thousands into another hierarchy on this abacus”. She asks the child to push all the beads back and to pack away.

What skills does the child acquire by doing this activity?

Counting on the abacus gives the child a sensorial comparison of quantities, it reinforces the relationship between units, tens, hundreds, and thousands, the child becomes more familiar with the abacus when doing this activity as well as it prepares him for operations on the abacus.

Looking for more Montessori activities?

Here is a list of all the Montessori Maths activities including Early Maths, Introduction to the Decimal System, Seguin Boards, The Hundred Board, The Short Bead Stair, Bead Chains, The Snake Game, Group Operations, The Large Number Rods, Recording with the Small Number Rods, The Short Bead Stair, The Strip Boards, The Boards, The Stamp Game, The Abacus, The Dot Game, and Fractions. Just click on the page you want to learn about to go there.