The Abacus: counting and recording

What materials are needed for this activity?

For this activity the directress needs the abacus, a sheet of paper with 4 vertical colour-coded lines - Green, Red, Blue, Green. Each line has a respective heading - Th, h, t, u. The directress also needs a Green, Red, and Blue pencil.

How do we count and record on the abacus?

The directress begins by telling the child that they are going to be counting the beads on the abacus and recording them at the same time. She introduces the sheet of paper to the child and tells him about the different columns.

She reminds the child to always start with the beads on the left-hand side. She brings across a unit bead and records 1 in the ‘u’ column with a green pencil. The child is asked to count and record the remaining units up until 9. Once the child reaches the 10th unit bead, the directress reminds him that they can change the 10 units for 1 blue ten bead.

She shows him how to bring across 1 blue ten bead and push the 10 green-unit bead back to the left-hand side. The directress then records 1 in the blue ‘t’ column and a zero in green below the nine in the ‘u’ column. She ensures that the 1 and the 0 are next to each other in their respective columns.

The child is encouraged to count across the second ten bead and records 2 in blue in th ‘t’ column and a zero in green in the ‘u’ column. The directress reminds the child that the numbers are next to each other. He continues counting and recording the tens in blue and units in green, until reaching 90.

Once he reaches the 10th ten bead, the directress reminds him to change it for 1 red-100 bead. She shows him how to bring across 1 red-100 bead and push the ten 10-blue beads back to the left-hand side. She records 1 in red in the ‘h’ column, a zero in blue in the ‘t’ column (below 9), and a zero in green in the ‘u’ column. (All numbers must be next to each other)

The child continues in the same manner, counting and recording the 100’s. Once he reaches the 10th hundred he changes them for 1 green thousand bead. He brings across the 1 green thousand bead and pushes the 10 red-hundred beads back to the left-hand side. The directress shows him how to record a green 1 in the ‘Th’ column, a red 0 in the ‘h’ column, a blue 0 in the ‘t’ column, and a green 0 in the ‘u’ column.

The child is encouraged to continue counting and recording up until 9000. He stops now as he cannot change for 10 thousands on this sheet of paper or show the change on this abacus. The directress then assists the child in packing away.

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.