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Montessori Monday – DIY Bead Bars

August 8, 2011 By Deb Chitwood 28 Comments

1-5 Bead Stair

1-5 Bead Stair

The last few Mondays, I’ve focused on DIY Montessori materials. DIY Montessori materials are especially helpful if you have a Montessori homeschool or are using Montessori materials in an environment other than a traditional Montessori school. Many materials, such as practical life materials, can be put together in just a few minutes.

Except for practical life activities, the materials may take longer than a few minutes to create … but many are still very simple to prepare. Today, I want to help parents with preschoolers who are ready for work with Montessori bead bars. The Montessori short bead stair is generally used with children ages 4 and up, although you should always individualize the activity for your own child.

DIY Montessori Bead Bars

(UPDATE): I have a giant bead stair in my “Montessori-Inspired Math Activities Using Wooden Beads and Free Printables.”  (photo at the top of the post)

Bead bars from 1-9 are used in Montessori schools for a number of activities, such as counting and addition. For a younger child, you can make a giant bead stair using pipe cleaners and 1” wooden beads for the numbers 1-5.

Note: Colors of the beads can vary according to manufacturer. If you want to be consistent with traditional Nienhuis Montessori bead stairs, use the following colors for each number of beads:

1 – red
2 – green
3 – pink
4 – yellow
5 – light blue
6 – lavender
7 – white
8 – brown
9 – dark blue
Montessori Bead Bars (Photo from A Thousand Joys)

Montessori Bead Bars (Photo from A Thousand Joys)

Here’s a photo of the materials used by A Thousand Joys with the teen boards.

DIY Bead Stair from Imagine Our Life

DIY Bead Stair from Imagine Our Life

Imagine Our Life has a complete tutorial on making beautiful Montessori bead materials (plus free bead stair printables).

The Pinay Homeschooler has DIY bead bars and links to helpful resources.

Preschool Universe has DIY bead bars using Wikki Stix.

Momma of 4 Cutiez tells about her experiences making Montessori bead bars.

You can make a beautiful set of complete Montessori bead material with beads and wire. Or you can make a simple set for the bead stair and some introductory activities using pony beads and pipe cleaners. Just consider your homeschool and what will work best for your unique family.

Skip Counting Activity (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Skip Counting Activity (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Here’s an example of a skip counting activity from Counting Coconuts using pony beads and pipe cleaners. It’s easy to prepare, yet attractive and an effective teaching tool. If you want to use the traditional Montessori colors, use golden beads for 10 bars.

Note: Making Montessori bead bars could be a fun activity for children as well as adults!

Directions for Presenting Montessori Bead Bars

Angie Chan’s Blog has directions for introducing the short bead stair.

Montessori Mom  and Shu-Chen Jenny Yen have directions for using the Montessori bead stair for addition.

Montessori Primary Guide has directions for using bead bars to introduce teens quantity as well as ten bars and unit beads for the tens.

If you’d like ideas for more DIY Montessori materials, check out my other DIY Montessori material posts!

Deb - Siganture

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Filed Under: Activities - Math, Activity of the Week, Montessori Monday Tagged With: Activity of the Week, addition, bead bars, DIY Montessori materials, Montessori, Montessori Monday, short bead stair, teens

Previous Post: « Thank You’s for July 2011
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. wordplayhouse™ says

    August 8, 2011 at 5:49 am

    This bead project is an great activity to for parents to use at home. The beauty of Montessori methods is that they can be incorporated into home activities even if your child doesn’t attend a Montessori school. Thanks for sharing this idea.

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 8, 2011 at 9:11 pm

      Thanks for your comment! I agree! I love that Montessori activities work so well for homeschoolers and for parents just wanting to supplement their child’s education at home. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Discovering Montessori says

    August 8, 2011 at 6:37 am

    Nice post. Very timely for me as I am starting to make the long bead chains for my kiddos to use to learn multiplication and square roots. It is nice to have examples of how others accomplished this work. Thank you for the links and for sharing.

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 8, 2011 at 9:17 pm

      Thanks so much! I’m impressed that you’re going to make the long bead chains yourself! A Thousand Joys also had a creative idea in case you don’t have a cabinet for the bead chains: http://athousandjoys.blogspot.com/2009/08/our-temporary-bead-cabinet.html.

      Reply
  3. Melissa says

    August 8, 2011 at 9:03 am

    Thank you for all of the great links, Deb! The golden bead materials are wonderful, but can really add up. I appreciate these tips!

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 8, 2011 at 9:13 pm

      Thanks, Melissa! It can definitely get expensive to buy a lot of Montessori materials. It’s nice that there are so many that can be made easily and inexpensively. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Jessie says

    August 8, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    What a wonderful idea. As soon as my LO is old enough I will be definitely be making these for his classroom

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 8, 2011 at 9:22 pm

      Thanks, Jessie! That sounds great! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Lori says

    August 8, 2011 at 5:31 pm

    I’ve been wanting to make my own beads for months now. It always seems like I’m too busy or too tired. LOL. Time to prioritize! Thanks for encouraging me to get it done!

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 8, 2011 at 9:20 pm

      Thanks for your comment, Lori! I can definitely understand your difficulties in finding time to make your own bead materials. When you’re homeschooling (or teaching in general), there are just so many things that always need to be done. Good luck! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Amy says

    August 8, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    Thanks for such great ideas…I follow you through Facebook also and love the activities you come up with. I am planning on using some of these with my kids. Stopping by from the Hip Homeschool Hop!

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 8, 2011 at 9:21 pm

      Thanks for your kind words, Amy! I hope you find lots of activities that work well for your kids! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Stormey says

    August 8, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    I have tons of beads that I’ve been meaning to do things with. Hopefully this will motivate me.

    I’m also your newest follower from the Hip Homeschool hop 🙂

    http://www.storm-front.org/

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 9, 2011 at 1:06 pm

      Thanks for your comment, Stormey! Have fun! And thanks for following me! 🙂

      Reply
  8. MissMOE says

    August 9, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    You have such great ideas week after week. I wish your website had been around when my kids were littles.

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 12, 2011 at 7:06 pm

      Thanks so much, MissMoe! Since I homeschooled my kids through high school, I do write posts for other ages, too. I think because I was originally a Montessori preschool teacher and have my MA in Early Childhood Studies, I do write most often about preschool through early elementary, though! 🙂

      Reply
  9. Jackie says

    August 12, 2011 at 10:24 am

    These look cool. I don’t know if my three year old would be ready for these or not but he is getting obsessed with numbers, counting, ordering. I have to say, teaching math is always something I avoided so I’m not even sure where to begin with him. I’m glad you gave lots of links so I can check this out!

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 12, 2011 at 7:11 pm

      Thanks, Jackie! Here’s the link to all my math posts: https://livingmontessorinow.com/category/activities-math/. And this post has links that give an overview of the entire Montessori math curriculum: https://livingmontessorinow.com/2010/09/13/montessori-math-activities/. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Shelly says

    August 15, 2011 at 9:38 pm

    Thank you so much for all your great posts. You are an inspiration and I’m super grateful for your practical suggestions. I love your website!

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 16, 2011 at 5:12 pm

      Thanks so much for your very kind comment, Shelly! Have a wonderful week! 🙂

      Reply
  11. Shabnum butt says

    August 16, 2011 at 7:25 pm

    Thanks for sharing beautiful ideas, it will help me to create my own bead material for my Nursery in Pakistan. Being a Montessorian I am blessed with wonderful people around me.
    Best regards,
    Shabnum Butt

    Reply
    • Deb says

      August 16, 2011 at 8:53 pm

      Thanks so much for your comment, Shabnum! That’s wonderful to hear! 🙂

      Reply
  12. Kristin says

    September 25, 2011 at 9:29 pm

    I love this post – counting beads are a great way for kids to get their hands on numbers!

    We made some of these with wikki stix and pony beads – so easy!

    I also like the skip counting idea from counting coconuts.

    Reply
  13. Deodua says

    August 31, 2014 at 2:44 am

    My Niece’s Birthday is coming-up, so this is going to be an excellent activity to try.

    Reply
  14. Ruth says

    December 13, 2016 at 7:32 pm

    Unfortunately, the link to Walk Beside Me isn’t allowing me to view the blog post! Super bummed! I tried using pipe cleaners but it’s hard to curl the ends over in a neat way. I’ll probably still use this method but

    Reply
    • Deb Chitwood says

      December 19, 2016 at 10:27 pm

      Hi Ruth! It’s a bummer that Walk Beside Me is only open by invitation now. I removed the link. I added a link to a wonderful post at Imagine Our Life. You’ll want to check that out if you haven’t seen it already. Good luck with your project! Deb

      Reply

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