The Divided Mat

Materials

• A mat divided vertically into 5 sections.
• Loose symbols from 1 to 9.
• Golden beads.

Direct Aim

To make the children conscious of the place of numbers–it is the place they occupy that makes them units, tens, hundreds or thousands. The divided mat may also be used for addition, subtraction and multiplication sums. The quantities are laid on the mat.

First Presentation (With two children.)

1. Explain the mat to the children-that they make a number, e.g. 5364,they are going to put the 4 in the first section-that is for the units.
2. The 6 will go in the next section, the ‘tens’ place, and so on.
3. Ask one of the children to put out the number in the cards on the mat.
4. The other child fetches the quantity in the golden bead material, and lays it on the mat.

Second Presentation

1. Ask a child to fetch any quantity of beads she likes-to count it,and lay out the beads and the cards correctly on the divided mat.
2. If a category is missing, she just leaves that section empty.

(Later this mat may be used with the bead frame.)