Material
- A quantity of coloured bead bars.
- The black and white stair.
- A quantity of ‘ten’ bead bars.
- A special notched card for the purpose of counting and marking.
- A special box to contain the bars of the coloured snake after they have been counted.
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Presentation
- Tell the child that we are going to add lots of numbers together, but we are first going to make a long wriggly snake, all in different colors- and then we are going to change it into a golden snake!
- ‘Every time we reach ten we are going to place a golden ten there, and take away the colors.
- If there are any units left on the colored bar, when ten has been reached we will place that quantity in black beads’.
- 10 is reached, the little notching card marks it off, and there are (3) units left on the bar.
- Get a golden 10 and a black three-then take away the coloured beads.
- The process is repeated until all the beads are counted.
- ‘Let’s count our snake-10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 (plus 6 units-his head!’)-86.
Direct aim
To familiarize the child with all the possible number combinations that go to make up 10, also to acquire a subconscious knowledge that no 2 digits added together amount to more than 18. This gives practice in essential combinations for any addition, up to that number.
Point of interest
Counting the colored snake and changing it into a golden snake.
Age of great interest
5 years.
First Control of Error Check
When the coloured snake has been made golden, and has been counted, the counting of the snake should be checked.
- Lay all the golden tens one under the other.
- Take all the coloured beads that were used and sort them out into order, i.e. place all the 9’s together, the 8’s, the 7’s, the 6’s and so on.
- Take the 9 and place it beside the first golden 10. What goes with 9 to make up 10? -1. So if there is a red 1, place it with the 9.
- If there are two 9’s, take the next one, and place it beside the second ‘ten’. If there are two 1’s left, and there are no 2’s, take the ‘three’ and exchange it for a ‘two’ and a ‘one’ and place the ‘one’ with the 9.
- The next coloured bar is 8-place it by the next ‘ten’. 8 + ? make up 10? = 2. So place the 2 with the 8.
- This is continued until all the beads are matched.
- If they match evenly, all is well, if not-they were wrongly counted!
Second Control of Error Check
- On a mat on the table, as before, the colored snake is laid out.
- The black and white bead stair is placed in right-hand corner of the mat.
- The golden ‘tens’ are laid on the left hand side.
- The colored beads are sorted out and placed on the right hand side.
- If there is only one colored nine, a golden ten is changed for a colored ‘nine’ and a ‘one’.
- The blue nine is put with the blue nine taken from the golden ‘ten’.
- There are two brown ‘eights’ (= sixteen). A golden ‘ten’ is changed for a lilac ‘six’ and a yellow ‘four’.
- Along with the two ‘eights’ are put a golden ‘ten’ and the lilac ‘six’.
- This process is repeated until all the answers have been taken from the golden ‘tens’.
Note:The child works with the first stage of the snake game for quite a short time only, before he slips easily into the second stage.
This can be used for the multiplication error check as well.
Third Control of Error Check
- The beads are laid out.
- The black and white bead stair on the right and the coloured beads as a snake.
- The first two bead bars are separated and counted, ‘5 +8’ with a golden 10 and a black 3 placed along side as before. ‘5 + 8 = 13’ this is emphasised to the child.
- Place the golden beads back in the snake and remove the coloured beads.
- The next coloured bar is placed beside the black 3, and as before 2 combinations are isolated and counted.
- This process is repeated until all the snake has been counted. The check is done in the usual way.
Age of great interest
5-6 years
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