“The extreme exactness and concreteness of a child's mind needs clear and precise help. When numerical rods are given to children, we see that even the smallest take a lively interest in counting. ”
MARIA MONTESSORI
In our primary classrooms, you will find a large, wooden cabinet with colored bead bars hanging both vertically and laying horizontal. We call this the Bead Cabinet and it houses the coveted chains! The Chains are a long awaited work for many primary children. The tiny, intricate, colored beads draw the child's eye. Fragile and beautiful, children are anxious to touch them. The Short Chains of the cabinet represent the square of each number, 1-10, and the Long Chains represent the cube of each number, 1-10. Each Chain also has corresponding labels, allowing the child to count the beads on each bar that makes up the Chain and place the corresponding label in the correct spot at the end of each segment. For each Chain, only the first labels that make up the initial bar are present. After the initial bar is counted the remaining labels available are only for the end of each bar. For example, the Short 5 Chain will only have tickets for the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then 10, 15, 20 and 25. Visually, the child will see the factors of 5-squared.
The Chains are part of the math group known as linear counting. Linear Counting begins with work on the Teen Beads, the Teen Board and the Tens Board, respectively. The Teen Beads and Boards are for both counting from 11-19 and recognizing the written symbols of these numbers. The Tens Boards are for counting and recognizing numbers from 10-99. This is also where the concept of one ten, two tens and three tens are introduced as ten, twenty and thirty. Once the child has absorbed the concepts from these two materials they are ready to begin counting the Chains.
A child's first chain is the short chain of 10 or commonly referred to as the 100 Chain. Once this chain has been practiced, and the child can correctly count to 100, the child is then ready for the long chain of 10 or the 1000 Chain. Although this is the longest chain, it's often one of the easiest as the child will soon recognize the pattern of skip counting by tens. From here, the child will progress to counting all the remaining short chains beginning with 5. Subsequently, the child then counts all the long chains, again launching with the chain of 5. These materials all work with number recognition and counting. The Long Chains reinforce the mathematical concept of skip counting, and then indirectly, they demonstrate to the child multiplication facts as well as the squares and cubes of each number. Children may be working with the Chains a good portion of the kindergarten year. They love laying out their chain rugs and counting each and every bead, especially since they waited quite some time to be able to manipulate this sought-after material!
