Kindergarten Math Center for December

I would like to introduce our MONTHLY CURRICULUM of MATH ACTIVITIES for KINDERGARTEN! This is perfect for those who want a one-stop shop kind of learning resource for mathematics suitable for busy parents and homeschooling.  This learning material is designed to make learning MATH FUN, hands-on, and engaging for Kindergarten students! It contains more than 15 printable activities with a variety of centers.  

FREE Place Value Apple Board Game

I recently shared this to my followers on Instagram.  This is one of Vito's favorite activity last year when we were reviewing our "teens".  He requested to play this again so I just have to update our game to place value (3 digits) since he has mastered the teens number.

Kindergarten Math: Shapes Activity Centers

I finally compiled my son's favorite SHAPE activities (centers) for the past months into one HUGE product!  Introducing the KINDERGARTEN MATH SHAPES ACTIVITY CENTERS, the first in a series of our KINDERGARTEN MATH collection.

Below, you will find the list of activities included in this fun and engaging printable set, plus a preview of the materials on how we put them into action! (You can view more on our Instagram account).

FREE Valentine's Day-Themed Math Resources

Fun Valentine's Day-themed math activities for you and your kids to enjoy this month of February! You can get these printable materials for FREE if you SIGN UP for our newsletter.

Montessori Golden Beads Bank Game

Vito currently loves using our Golden Beads material.  We are done with presentation of materials and have worked the layout (Montessori Decimal System with Golden Beads) as well (we will do this again) and now he enjoys playing the Bank Game.

Montessori Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication Booklets

I finally completed organizing my materials and I am so happy to share some of our favorite materials in math, the addition, subtraction, and multiplication booklets!  These goodies are some of the most downloaded free materials in our shop and I am so glad that it’s helping a lot of school teachers and homeschoolers.  These Montessori booklets are used with Montessori math materials but can also be used as worksheets alone.  These booklets are perfect for practice and repetition works.

Montessori Teens and Tens Extension Work

A few weeks ago, I shared some of the extension works that Vito was doing on the teens and the tens on my Instagram. We didn't own the complete set of Sequin Boards, so I decided to make our own materials to do more exercises and not be limited by the boards. I have talked about learning about teens the Montessori way here and in this post. In this post, I will give you a walk-through of how we learn more about the tens and how we practice counting bigger numbers (from 11 to 100).

Back to School: Our Math Learning Resources

We are using Montessori Math albums in our homeschool so our math works revolve mostly on classic Montessori materials.  I also integrate seasonal activities in our learning activities to add some twist.  I got my albums from Montessori Parent and KHT Montessori for early childhood.  These are amazing resources that have helped me understand the order of materials to use and basically how to use them.  We tend to do a lot of extension works, something that are not included in most of these albums.  I share these activities mostly in my Instagram account and hopefully I will have some time to share them here in the blog as well.

Note that this list is for our personal homeschooling only.  It doesn’t reflect what’s in a Montessori classroom.  The list serves as my guide in the subject area and Vito's possible activities this school year.  Although I have a plan and a guide it doesn’t mean that Vito is forced to work on all of these for the next 10 months.  Depending on Vito's interest and progress, we will choose which activity to do and prioritize.

Montessori Multiplication: Extension Work

My son wants to master his multiplication tables, especially for bigger numbers.  We are using both the Chinese/Singapore math (abstraction) method and Montessori when it comes to mastering his mathematical skills. For Montessori, though we have the Multiplication board, Mavi prefers using the colored beads as these keep him engaged and he thinks that they are more “fun”.  With this, I am so excited to share the learning materials we use to aid his mastery of multiplication using extension activities that goes perfectly with the Montessori colored beads.

These learning materials were very helpful, and my son enjoyed working on the extension activities.  The best thing about these learning materials is that they grow with your child and you can print them again and again so your child can practice each multiplication table through the years.

Montessori Addition and Subtraction of Fractions

Sharing some updates with regard to my elementary boy.  Though it may seem that I’m posting a lot about preschool activities, in the background my 9 years old is doing a lot of work too in math, geography/history, and science.  Now, one of the things he worked on last year was his fractions.  After working fractions and fraction equivalence, Mavi worked on addition and subtraction of fractions.  He did very well on this.  With one simple presentation, he grasped the concept right away, and after which he did a lot of practise using our fraction cut-outs.  Somehow, I find this straightforward, meaning if your child knows about their basic addition and subtraction they can breezily work on this and move on to multiplication of fractions or working with unlike fractions.

Learning The Square of a Number Using Montessori Short Bead Chain with Square

We find ourselves working on the Short Bead Chain once again as Mavi reviews his multiplication table.  If you skim through my posts, you will find that we’ve been doing this since Mavi was 5 years old.  Now that he’s older (and wiser!) he finds a deeper meaning in learning the square of a number.

Yes folks, in mathematical terms, the short bead chain materials (and the squares) are used to present the precise squares of a number (2 squared, 4 squared).  Using manipulatives, children can easily grasp the concept and eventually memorize the squares.

The Montessori Geometric Sticks

We finally get to use our Montessori Geometric Sticks now that Mavi is learning about polygons, triangles and angles.  You can purchase this fantastic learning material at any Montessori shop or in Amazon.  My boys and I are fascinated with this material.  There’s so much we can do with it, from building plane geometric shapes, to letters, and artworks!

Snake Game: Search for the Perfect 10

The Snake Game is one of the most popular math games in a Montessori classroom.  I introduced this to Mavi when he was 5 years ago, contrary to Vito who is just 46 months now.  Vito’s sensitive  years for counting arrived early while for Mavi it was alphabets and reading.  How fascinating, isn’t it?

Learning Addition Using Montessori Stamp Game

The Montessori Stamp Game is one of our favourite math materials at home.  This learning material can be used in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  And for us, this is how Mavi learned how to understand the concept of regrouping (dynamic addition).  He enjoyed this material more than any other methods of learning addition and subtraction.

Learning Multiplication Using Montessori Colored Bead Bars

My previous post on Multiplication using the Montessori Multiplication Bead Board has been very popular, and I’m so happy that many people find it useful. In this post, I’m sharing that using Bead Board is just one of the many ways of teaching Multiplication in a Montessori classroom. Another favorite of ours is the use of colored bead bars. This is usually introduced after the Multiplication Bead Board or the Charts (though I will share about the Multiplication Charts soon!). We’ve worked with several multiplication activities using the bead bars, but I will highlight the basic presentation in this post.   Again please note that this is based on a home setup.

What You Need to Know About the Early Childhood Montessori Math Materials

I adore Montessori math materials and how it enables the child to experience the true meaning of quantity and numbers.  Montessori math is not just about memorization, counting and abstraction, its main goal is to build a relationship between the child and the materials, learning with ease and enjoying the work through engaging activities.  I own most of the Montessori math early childhood, and starting to collect the elementary for my oldest child.  They’re quite pricey, but worth it. On how to use these materials, I have albums from The Montessori Parent, Cultivating Dharma and Garden of Francis, and I also administer other extension activities that I could think of (I love doing this!).

Hands-on Learning of Equivalent Fractions

I enjoyed presenting this activity to Mavi, and he wanted this work even more. We used our Fraction Magnetic Pies and a DIY frame instead of the Montessori fraction insets in this activity. The album that was used here was from The Montessori Parent.

Learning How to Use the Montessori Teen Boards

Okay, so your little ones can count up to ten, so what’s next?  In this post, I’m going to show you how the Montessori math method, teaches a child the quantity and number symbols of eleven to nineteen.  There’s a BIG difference being able to “count” from one to twenty or a hundred compared to grasping the concept of what these numbers stand for.  This is where the beauty of Montessori math would stand out, it allows the child to experience the use of materials and its purpose, and once confidence is gained the child can work with the material independently. 

To demonstrate this, here’s our journey of learning the “teens”.

Montessori Math Counting Beyond Ten: The Teens

Vito loves counting.  He may not know yet how to count from 1 to 100 but he knows how to integrate math and numbers in daily life.  He mastered his 1:1 correspondence early on and now he’s learning how to count beyond ten.  I was surprised the first time I heard him counting from 11 and up.  I didn’t introduced that to him yet but he already knows.  It’s like self taught, but I was thinking that he might have learned it from his brother.  And because he might be in a sensitive period on number now, I decided to give him a few exercises to recognize and name numbers from 11 to 20, and understanding what those numbers represent in quantity.

The Montessori Number Rods

I love Montessori math materials.  They are so engaging and well thought of that  the child can easily absorb concepts and retain what is learned.  Take for example this Number Rods which I recently  introduced to Vito.  We are mostly using counters in our math activities, it’s more abstract and quantitative.  With Number Rods, counting here is more linear and sequential. My goal was for Vito to learn:

• how to sequence  ‘one’ to ‘ten’ (they form a staircase)
• to understand the value of each number