Bead Chain - 1000 Chain

Age
3-6

Materials

 * 1) A Thousand Chain.
 * 2) A set of small labels, 10 to 90 in blue, 100 to 900 in red, 1000 to 9000 in green.
 * 3) Hundred Squares.
 * 4) 1 Thousand Cube.
 * 5) Floor mat.

Presentation

 * 1) Using the Thousand Chain, the Directress starts to fold up the ten bead bard bars into tens, making a hundred in a grouping.
 * 2) Then she places a Hundred Square on top of each grouping and at the end, places the Thousand Cube.
 * 3) Directress asks, "Do you this thousand chain would make a Thousand Cube?"
 * 4) The children most probably say no.
 * So, the Directress shows them that it does by piling the hundred squares together and then place it beside the Thousand Cube.
 * 1) The children could see the similarity between the two.
 * 2) The Directress puts away the Hundred Square and the Thousand Cube.
 * 3) Then she starts unfolding the thousand chains, stretching them.
 * 4) Then the Directress begins to count and place the markers.
 * 5) At every ten, she would place the corresponding blue marker, 10, 20, and 30,..... When she reaches 100, she places a red marker on the chain and a hundred square on top.
 * 6) She proceeds in this manner until she reaches the end where it should be a thousand.
 * 7) She then places a green marker and the Thousand Cube there.

Control Of Error
Directress guided.

Points Of Interest
The Montessori beads are designed or structured to stimulate easy comprehension of our decimal (or ten) system of counting. It is important to provide opportunities for children to count objects, which are presented in a random arrangement, especially under a hundred, so that bundles or sets of ten are actually formed by the children.

Purpose

 * Help the child realize how much bigger one hundred are than one ten, and how much bigger one thousand is than one hundred.


 * Help the child grasp the conservation of number and reversibility.
 * Introduce the child to counting in tens.

Variation
At the end of the two exercises, the Directress could introduce a discussion along the following lines:


 * "Look how long the chain of one hundred beads is".
 * "If we made a chain of 100 oranges, would it be as long as the Hundred Chain made up of Golden Beads?"

Draw out the answer that the chain oranges would be longer because oranges take up more room than beads.

Handouts/Attachment
1000 Chain Bead Arrows