Montessori Monday – Montessori-Inspired Math Activities Using Wooden Beads and Free Printables

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Spielgaben. All opinions are honest and my own. This post contains Montessori Services affiliate links at no cost to you.

Check out my original Spielgaben review (with examples of Montessori-inspired activities as shown in the collage above) to find out more about Spielgaben educational toys. Briefly, Spielgaben toys are exceptionally high-quality educational toys designed for ages 3-12.

The Spielgaben complete set comes with over 700 pages of full-color printed learning materials. These printed materials help you as a parent or teacher easily use Spielgaben toys educationally with your child and/or students.

Last month, I had a post with Montessori-Inspired Color Activities Using Wooden Toys and Free Printables. Today, I want to share some ideas for using Spielgaben wooden lacing beads and free printables to create Montessori-inspired math activities.

Montessori Principles and Spielgaben

Montessori education encourages the use of toys for the home that are designed for open-ended exploration and made of natural materials like wood. Spielgaben toys are made of natural materials and provide unlimited possibilities for open-ended play and learning.

The activities I’m sharing today add a practical life component and the Spielgaben wooden lacing beads. I’m using the wooden beads today for Montessori-inspired math activities, although they could be used for other concepts as well. I’ll link to free printables which will help make the activities simple to prepare yet attractive.

Montessori-Inspired Math Activities Using Spielgaben Wooden Beads and Free Printables

Montessori-Inspired Bead Stair and Practical Life Activity

To learn more about the Montessori bead stair and how to present it, check out my DIY Montessori Bead Bars. This activity uses the free Bead Stair Coloring printable from Montessori Mom. I sized it to 90% on my printer and added Spielgaben wooden points (dots) for the transfer activity. I cut the printed page down to 1-5 bars to make a simpler activity than the traditional Montessori short bead stair.

I added the exact number of beads needed to create a bead stair for counting 1-5. Numerals could be added depending on the individual child, although I just focused on quantity in this activity. I cut pipe cleaners to leave a bit of space on each end of a bead bar. The pipe cleaners could be bent on the ends if you wanted more permanent bead bars.

I used a large plastic tray from Montessori Services and a sugar tong to transfer the Spielgaben points to the printable. I added the exact number of Spielgaben points (the Spielgaben toy from my last Spielgaben post). You could add another type of tong or chopsticks to transfer the wooden points if you wish. Or you could use small stickers or have your child color the dots in the printable according to the bead stair.

This activity could also be made into two separate trays … one for creating the bead bars with the wooden beads and another for transferring the wooden points to the printable. To organize the small pieces, I used some smaller Montessori Services containers. I typically lay activities out on Montessori Services rugs.

Lacing Bead Addition Tray

For this activity, I used the free Lacing Bead Addition Task Cards from Home School Parent. To create cards for children who can read numeral names, you’ll find a more advanced version of the printable at Mrs. Samuelson’s Swamp Frogs. I used a large plastic tray from Montessori Services. I used just enough beads for the largest number of each bead in the task cards. Since Christmas will be here before long, I used red and green beads to add a Christmas theme.

This would be great as an introductory addition activity for young children. When demonstrating the activity, I would probably “read” the final equation after adding the beads to the string. I’d say something like, “2 green spheres plus 3 red cylinders equals a total of 5 wooden beads.”

Lacing Bead Pattern Tray

This activity uses free Pattern Cards by Megan Conway at Teachers Pay Teachers. I especially like these cards for a patterning activity for advanced preschoolers and kindergarteners. Again, I chose a Christmas theme although you could create a variety of patterns at different times of the year.

Another free pattern printable that would work well with the wooden lacing beads: Color Pattern Cards from PreKinders.

UPDATE:

Special deal for my readers!

All My Spielgaben Posts

Many of these include links to free printables! (Click on an image to go to the related blog post. The gallery is ordered according to publication date with my latest post at the top.)

Version 4 of Spielgaben Educational Toys 

I highly recommend Spielgaben as an amazing educational material for home or school. Even though the toys aren’t inexpensive, they’re definitely worth the price because of the high quality of materials and number of years your children or students can use them.

Special deal for my readers!