Checker Board with Activity Cards, Alison’s Montessori

• Math, 6-9

• The Checker Board is introduced in the elementary years, around age 6-7, after much practice with the Large Bead Frame. This material allows children to experience working with long multiplication without having necessarily memorized all multiplication facts.

• In addition to the traditional Montessori Checker Board, Alison’s Montessori Checker Board Complete Set includes Activity Cards.
• The Activity Cards are sectioned into 4 parts, which helps children progress naturally.
• The first set of cards offers practice building numbers on the checkboard.
• Other sets of cards slowly lead children to working on different multiplication cases: no carrying, carrying, 4-6 digit multiplicands, 3-4 digit multipliers, numbers ending in zeroes.

• On the horizontal bottom edge of the Checker Board is the multiplicand representation. White tiles with color-coded numbers will be placed at their respective place values. On the vertical right side edge of the Checker Board is the multiplier representation. Grey tiles with color-coded numbers will be place at their respective place values.

• Children will select color beads to place on the board, which serves as a giant calculator. Partial products are concretely represented, and are added together as a final product at the end of the exercise. This method provides children a deeper experience with place value. 1 red bead in the unit square is 1, while in the ten square is worth 10, and so on.

• The Checker Board with Activity Cards affords children independence and advancement in learning long multiplication. Young learners can count all beads to find products, while more experienced learners can put into practice multiplication facts. Following the Checker Board multiplication work is Geometrical Multiplication and the Flat Bead Frame.

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This post has been made possible thanks to Alison’s Montessori for providing this selected material, at no cost, with no obligation. I write unbiased review on materials that I have been effective for us, and that I believe would make a difference in a child’s learning experience!

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