Making maths fun with golden beads

One of the most exciting and loved materials in the Montessori Cycle 1 classroom is the Golden Beads. This hands-on material introduces children to the decimal system and helps them build a deep understanding of place value and quantity through exploration and play.

We begin with the physical representation of quantity:

• 1 unit (a single bead)

• 1 ten (a bar of 10 beads)

• 1 hundred (a square made of 10 ten-bars)

• 1 thousand (a cube made of 10 hundred-squares)

Children first explore these quantities with their hands, feeling the difference between one tiny bead and the large, heavy thousand cube. They are then introduced to matching number cards (1, 10, 100, 1000) that represent these quantities. Through repetition, they gain a solid understanding of both the quantity and the symbol.

Making maths fun

We then move into a fun and engaging activity known as “Bring Me…”, where children collect quantities based on a spoken number or number card. These joyful games help children understand how numbers are formed, eventually working all the way up to 9,999.

Exploring mathematical equations early through play

As their understanding deepens, children are introduced to the group operation games—playful, collaborative experiences where they explore addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. These feel almost like role play:

• In addition, children all bring me their quantities, and I become the “greedy” one taking everyone’s food - we then combine everything to see the total.

• In subtraction, they come to take some of the food back from me—and I pretend to be sad as the amount becomes smaller.

• In multiplication, I quietly give each child the same quantity—but they don’t realise this at first. Only when all the quantities are brought together do they discover the mystery: they each had the same number.

• In division, the emphasis is on fairness. The children must share a quantity evenly—and if one child gets more, the others are quick to cry, “That’s not fair!” and explain how to fix it.

Through these experiences, they gain a true, embodied understanding of each operation:

• Addition is putting quantities together to make more.

• Subtraction is taking some away and having less.

• Multiplication is putting together equal groups.

• Division is sharing evenly to find what one person receives.

How we introduce maths work

We begin with static operations, where no exchanging is needed, and later introduce dynamic operations, where exchanging takes place. Through these lessons, children discover that 10 units equal 1 ten, 10 tens equal 1 hundred, and so on—giving them a strong understanding of how our number system works.

This foundation prepares children beautifully for later work with materials like the Stamp Game and supports deeper mathematical understanding in Cycle 2, where they continue building on what they’ve joyfully discovered in these early years. It also lays the groundwork for Cycle 3, where this strong understanding of the decimal system and the four operations is applied in even more complex and abstract ways.