The wonderfully logical sequential world of numbers! Montessori's analytical mind brought reality and common sense to this world of symbols creating exciting, colourful and - oh so appealing - materials to work through. Recognize the symbol, understand the quantity and then bring those things together. So simple, so logical, so easy to retain. By breaking every concept and theory into steps and developing each piece of materials to address the stages of the development Montessori created - as with her Language Program - a pretty fail safe curriculum.
The youngest students enjoy the raised sandpaper symbols through 3 period lessons, counting and recognizing growing quantities through the red rods and the starting acknowledgement that putting symbol and quantity together give abstract understanding to numbers that are greater or smaller than others. Parallel materials reinforce this discovery - the spindle boxes allow counting and sorting, numbers and counters give space to understanding odd numbers and even numbers...all this at Montessori's introduction level in a Casa class!
The youngest students enjoy the raised sandpaper symbols through 3 period lessons, counting and recognizing growing quantities through the red rods and the starting acknowledgement that putting symbol and quantity together give abstract understanding to numbers that are greater or smaller than others. Parallel materials reinforce this discovery - the spindle boxes allow counting and sorting, numbers and counters give space to understanding odd numbers and even numbers...all this at Montessori's introduction level in a Casa class!