Five pages with the Montessori large number cards, where a units card is one card wide, a tens card two, a hundreds card three and a thousands card four. Page 1 shows layered numbers to pull apart: children write the number on each blank card, so 3425 becomes 3000 + 400 + 20 + 5. Page 2 goes the other way: first cards stacked with their right edges lined up, as they are just before they are slid together, then cards in any order; children write the number they make. Page 3 is about zero: three-digit numbers such as 405 need no tens card, because the 0 of the 400 card holds the place; children pull them apart, put them together and circle the number two cards make. Page 4 matches golden bead quantities to their layered cards with lines, then asks for the cards of two quantities. Page 5 marks a digit in a layered number to write what it is worth, then gives the cards of a number with one card missing. Each page begins with a worked example.
Use the pages after the child has laid out the large number cards with the golden beads and has superimposed them to make a number. Let children check a page with the real cards: pull the layered card apart and lay the pieces in a staircase, or slide them together and read the number. On page 3, ask why there is no card with a 0 on it for the tens.
Make cards from strips of paper: one square wide for units, two for tens, three for hundreds, four for thousands. Write 1 to 9, 10 to 90, 100 to 900 and 1000 to 9000 on them, then build a number by laying the cards on top of each other with their right edges together, and pull it apart again.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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Expanded form with the Montessori large number cards, where each card is as wide as its number of digits and the cards stack into the whole number. Students pull layered cards apart into thousands, hundreds, tens and units, slide cards together into numbers, see zero hold a place, match golden beads to their cards and find the missing card.
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