The Snake Game: bonds of ten

What materials are used for this activity?

For this activity we will need Two sets of short bead stairs in one wooden box, A marker to count with, A box containing 9 ten-bead bars, and Two pieces of felt.

How is this activity presented?

This activity teaches the child how to make bonds of ten. He must have worked with the Short bead stair before this activity as he is encouraged to build the Short bead stair at the beginning of the exercise.

The directress begins by placing one piece of felt on the table-mat and the other piece on the top left of the mat. She asks the child to build the short bead stair on the top left-hand side of the mat starting with one at the top, and nine at the bottom like before. The directress builds another short bead stair next to the child’s one, but this one will be upside down starting with nine at the top, and one at the bottom.

The directress tells the child that they will be making a beautifully coloured snake with the beads. The directress begins by taking the number the nine bead from her short bead stair and place it to an angle on the left-hand side on the piece of felt in front of the child, she then asks the child to take the number one bead from his stair and place it next to the number nine bead on the felt.

The directress and the child continue in the same manner placing their respective beads next to one another on the felt to make bonds of ten each time, for example, 8 and 2, 7 and 3, 6 and 4, 5, and 5 and so on. She then tells the child that they will change the coloured snake into a golden snake.

The child is asked to begin counting from the beginning of the snake until reaching ten, then he is encouraged to place a marker once reaching ten. The directress shows him how to change the colourful beads from 1 ten bead-bar. The child continues in the same manner until he reaches the end of the snake, exchanging the colourful beads for a golden ten-bead bar each time.

Exchanging the colourful beads for a golden ten-bead bar

What skills does the child acquire by working with the Montessori Snake Game: bonds of ten?

This is a wonderful activity for children, and they always enjoy making the beautifully coloured snake. This activity teaches the child linear counting, reinforces the exchanging procedure, it prepares the child for addition as well as this activity teaches the child how to make bonds of ten.

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.