Part Twelve of Many: The Montessori Life: Teaching Addition

Once the children start to get the hang of one’s, tens, hundreds and thousands, you can start introducing addition. It’s pretty simple: you come up with two four digit numbers that do not require you to carry. When you’re demonstrating have one child get the beads for one of the numbers from the bank and have another child get the beads for the other number. Then on the mat, lay out one number with the Thousand cubes to the farthest left, then the hundred squares, then the tens strings, the units and finally the cards with the zeros overlapped on the right side. Follow the same process with the other four digit number. Now group together all of the thousands and have one child pull out the card that shows how many thousands there are. Follow the same process with the hundreds, the tens and the units. Overlap the zeros on the cards and read the number to the children. At that point simply say, “________ (the first four digit number) plus _________(the second four digit number) equals _________ (the four digit number that the groups combined to make). Would you like to record that?” and present the children with a paper that has spaces to write down the addition problem they just solved.