The child lays colored bead bars end to end in a long line: the snake. Then the counting starts at the head. At the tenth bead the child puts a marker, takes away the beads counted and lays one golden ten bar in their place. If ten was reached in the middle of a bar, the beads left over in that bar are swapped for the black-and-white bar of that number, and the counting goes on from there, the black-and-white beads first. Ten by ten the snake turns golden. At the end it is golden ten bars and one last bar of fewer than ten, and that is the sum. To check, the child lays the colored bars that were taken away in a row and counts them again, or pairs them into tens.
Five pages that follow the snake game. Page 1 has short snakes of three or four bars, 11 to 20: the child counts the beads, circles each ten (where the golden ten bar would go) and writes the tens, the ones and the total. Page 2 has the child write each snake as an addition, one number for each bar, such as 7 + 5 + 3 = 15, and find the total. Page 3 is about the bars that make ten: first the bar that fills the space under a golden ten bar (7 and 3), then the two bars side by side in a snake that make ten. Page 4 has long snakes, 31 to 50: the child draws a line after every tenth bead, as the marker goes down in the game, then circles what the snake becomes, golden ten bars and a black-and-white bar, and writes the total. Page 5 turns it round: a total is given, and the child circles bars that make it and writes the addition; there is often more than one way, and the key shows one.
Use the pages after the child has played the snake game with the real bead bars, golden ten bars and the black-and-white bead stair, so the pages are a record of work the hands already know. Keep a box of bead bars at the table: a child who is unsure can build the snake from the page, play it through and check the total. On page 3, have the child lay the two bars under a golden ten bar to see that they are just as long. Page 5 makes a good partner game: each child finds a different way to make the number and they compare.
Make bead bars from dry pasta tubes or beads threaded on pipe cleaners, 1 to 9 beads each, and a few bars of ten. Lay three or four short bars in a line, count along them and swap each ten counted for a bar of ten. Talk about how many tens and how many more are left at the end, and write it as an addition together.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
The Montessori addition snake game, where colored bead bars laid end to end are counted in tens and swapped for golden ten bars until the snake shows its sum. Children circle each ten, write a snake as an addition, find the bars that make ten, mark every tenth bead on long snakes and choose what they become, and pick bars that make a given total.
Tell us what to make next, or build your own with a worksheet maker.
This worksheet is free to download, print, copy, and hand out in your classroom or at home. You do not need to create an account, and there are no watermarks on the PDF.
