Seguin Boards

Seguin Board A: learning quantities

How this activity is presented

The directress uses the ten-bead bars, two pieces of felt, and the short bead stair in this activity. The directress does a three-period lesson with the child. She begins by placing one piece of felt on the table mat and the other piece at the top left of the mat.

She assists the child in building the short bead stair on the piece of felt on the top left of the mat and places the box of ten-bead bars to one side. She reintroduces a ten-bead bar to the child and asks him to count it.

First period: the directress isolates the ten-bead bar vertically on the mat. She tells the child he has ten and if you add one, he gets 11. She takes one bead from the short bead stair and places it to the immediate top right of the ten-bead bar. The directress tells the child that this is 11 and asks him to count it, she then places 11 aside.

The directress isolates another ten-bead bar and tells the child that if you have 10 and add 2 you will 12. She takes the two-bead bar from the short bead stair and places it to the immediate top right of the ten-bead bar. She tells the child that this is 12 and asks him to count the beads. She then places 12 aside.

The directress repeats with 13 in the same manner.

Second period: the directress spends a lot of time in this period. She places 11,12 and 13 on the felt in front of the child and asks him to show her the certain numbers she calls out for.

Third period: The directress isolates each number again, asking the child to tell her which one is on the mat. If the child has grasped the concept, the directress then consolidates by placing all three on the mat, saying to the child “today we have learnt that this is 11, 12, and 13” pointing at each number as she does so.

What does the child learn by doing this activity?

This activity reinforces place values of tens and ones, it helps the child with the sequencing of teen numbers, and this activity not only helps the child but also helps the directress to understand where the child is at.

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.