Golden Beads Addition (Static and Dynamic)

In this post I am going to present how to do static and dynamic addition using the Montessori Golden Beads.  I purchased our Golden Beads at Absorbent Minds UK and I am happy of the materials despite the price. These materials can be purchased in any Montessori Shop.

ADDITION STATIC

Mavi would work on this in the morning. I find it hard to make him do Montessori activities in the afternoon as he tends to be tired or prefer to have  free play.

Anyway, we would set up the materials together  and he could finish the task with little assistance from me.  I prepared the equations before heand in Post-Its rather than using the small number cards. During the entire session he would pick 4 to 5 Post-Its in our magic box and would solve the equations one by one.

Shown below is an equation he worked recently.

So given the equations Mavi will layout the beads. We read out the quantity of the beads from left to right.

Now to add, combine the two sets of beads.  Emphasize  that addition is putting together. Once the beads are combined, count the unit beads first, and work through the tens and hundreds (to thousands if available).  Here Mavi would take note of the quantity by getting a large number card to represent the quantity. He would do the same with the tens and hundreds. Now note that we are currently doing addition up to hundreds only. 

To represent the sum Mavi stacked the number cards together as shown below. We would the  read the number together. Now we do this most of the time because he keeps on forgetting how to read large numbers.  If number cards are not available you can always use printable number card or just let the child write the sum on the paper.

DYNAMIC ADDITION (REGROUPING OF ONES)

Dynamic addition is commonly known as the process of addition wherein we need to carry over an amount.  In Montessori they do this by regrouping. The process is similar to static but the regrouping takes place when we now combine the beads.

Based the on equation that my son was working on, 8 and 7 sums to 15, which 10 and 5. Now, what we did here is to replace the 10 units a ten gold bar and retain the 5 unit beads. Add the new ten bar to the left and you can now start counting the total sum by counting the regrouped beads ( start counting from the right).

 

DYNAMIC ADDITION (REGROUPING OF TENS)

Similar process is applied when you need to regroup the tens. Replace 10 ten gold bards to a hundred bar and move it up to the left.

Then count the total sum of the beads from right to left.

And that’s it! So simple! You might think it is complicated but once you started working on it, it’s fun and can be addicting… well, that’s according to Mavi :)

Happy Monday!