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.

Ideas of Montessori-Inspired Spielgaben Activities

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. They come with over 1,000 pages of supplementary learning materials that help you as a parent or teacher easily use Spielgaben toys educationally with your child and/or students. All of the instructional materials are digital PDFs that can be printed out or viewed on any device.

Montessori-Inspired Color Activities Using Wooden Toys and Free Printables

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

1-5 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.

1-5 Bead Stair

Lacing Bead Addition Tray

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.

Lacing Bead Addition Layout

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

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.

Pattern Card Layout

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

Special Deal on Spielgaben Educational Toys

What’s Included in the Spielgaben Complete Set: (from Spielgaben Website)

13 sequential Spielgaben sets made of environmentally sustainable and non-toxic children friendly materials.
3 wooden multi-set trays with chessboard lid that stores all of the 13 sets neatly and efficiently and help children pack and unpack effortlessly.
Learning Resources : 8 to 12 years worth of learning activities and lessons including full colour digital format of 4 sets user guides, over 30 sets interactive worksheets, 65 inspiration cards and many more…

I think Spielgaben educational toys are an ideal Christmas present for the home and an amazing educational material for schools. Even though they 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. The Spielgaben complete set is currently $388 USD ($405 AUD or £240 GBP), including shipping to USA, AU, or UK. If you go to the Spielgaben Contact Form and send Spielgaben an email mentioning Living Montessori Now, you will be contacted by Spielgaben and given the special price of $342 USD ($360 AUD or  £214 GBP), including shipping to USA, AU, or UK. Spielgaben is also available in Canada, although shipping to Canada is $52 USD ($55 AUD).

Montessori Monday Link-Up

If you have some Montessori activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. It’s fine to link up a post from your archives – and you may link up anytime during the week! Your post may be any Montessori-inspired activity or idea. It doesn’t need to be related to my Montessori Monday post.

Link up your exact post URL so that we can find your activity if we return to the linky at a later date (which I often do when I’m looking for activities for a roundup post). I publish the Montessori Monday post and linky at 6:00 a.m. EST each Monday and keep the linky open throughout the week.

Please place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post. Let’s use Montessori Monday to gain inspiration/ideas and to encourage each other! If you would leave an encouraging comment on the post linked up ahead of you (along with any other posts you’re drawn to), that would be awesome! I’m not able to comment on every post, but I do a lot of pinning on Pinterest and sharing on the Living Montessori Now Facebook page from the Montessori Monday link-up. Thanks for participating!

Notes

For community discussions, please join us at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page, We Teach Montessori Group, and/or Google+ Montessori Community. The We Teach Montessori group has a Member Resources Sharing (for resources such as freebies and series) as well as a Linky Party for We Teach Montessori. We Teach Montessori has a linky just like the one here except that it’s continuous where you may add your Montessori-inspired activities and ideas to the same linky. New links will go to the top of the linky. I’d love to see us build up a great collection of Montessori-inspired ideas there, too. After you link up here, why not hop over to the We Teach Montessori Group and link up there?! And don’t forget the Saturday/Sunday Parent/Teacher Preparation Days share where you may share a kid-related activity of any kind at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page!

It’s also Motivational Monday on Mondays now! I invite you to share something positive on the Bits of Positivity Facebook page (Bits of Positivity is my other blog) to help us all get a good start on the work/school week. You might share an inspirational or motivational quote, positive graphic, or post about finding balance or simplifying your life. Or you might share a post on organizing, an encouraging post, a post about making a difference in the world, or a positive parenting post. Just go ahead and share on the Bits of Positivity wall any time today! (Please “like” the Bits of Positivity Facebook page if you haven’t already.) I’ll be pinning a number of ideas to my regular Pinterest boards.

If you have a giveaway on your blog, please add it to my Family-Friendly Giveaway Linky Page! If you enjoy entering giveaways, you’ll always find some great giveaways there.

Also, if you’ve ever been linked to in one of my roundup posts, please feel free to grab the “Featured on” badge.

Please share your Montessori-inspired activities and ideas below. And please include the Montessori Monday button or link back in your post or on your site. Thanks so much!

Have you added the Montessori Monday button or a text link? Please be sure you’ve done one or the other so that others can find the link-up, too! Thank you!

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