- Mathematics
- In the Primary classroom, children practice arithmetic skills using the Addition and Negative Snake Games. They become acquainted with the concept of replacing every 10 color beads with a golden bead bar and creating a golden snake, which is the point of interest.
- The Multiplication Snake Game is similar to the Addition Snake Game. The purpose of this work is to provide children a context to practice their multiplication facts.
Materials
Our Premium Quality Multiplication Snake Game set contains:
- 1 yellow wooden box with a lid containing 5 sets of colored beads.
- 1 golden wooden box with a lid containing 23 golden bead bars.
- 1 black and white wooden box with lid containing 1 set of placeholder bead bars.
How to use it
- Children should be familiar with the Montessori beads color coding.
- For this example, let’s assume children have practiced memorizing the multiplication table of 2, 5, and 6.
- Select several 2, 5, and 6 color bars and build a snake with them from left to right.
- Demonstrate to children how to count 10 beads from the left, and pause. If you have remaining beads on the last bar, you will need to hold the place for these beads by using the place holder bars (black and white).
- Once you have counted 10 beads, you can remove all the bead bars that you counted. Replace them with a 10 golden bar.
- Next, regroup all the color bead bars per color, to the left of the work.
- When starting to count a new set of 10 beads, begin with the placeholder beads if applicable.
- In the end, you will have a complete golden snake, and perhaps a placeholder bar. Place them all together vertically to read your product.
- Next, regroup the colored bars by color, in a vertical manner. Skip count each color bead bars group using their multiplication facts. For example, if you have four 6 bead bars, skip count 6, 12, 18, 24. Finally, count all partial products for each color, then add them together to have a final product.
- Compare the color bead bars product to the golden bead bars product as a control of errors.
- The Multiplication Snake Game is an engaging way to practice multiplication facts. The multi-step aspect of the exercise promotes critical thinking and stimulates executive functioning skills. Once children are comfortable with the work, they can create their own colored snake to solve using the multiples they wish to practice in context.
