Module 7:  
Montessori Mathematics Exercises 
(Part 2) 
Assignment 
 
 

By Maryam Tariq 

Roll# D14263 

 
  

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Question 1: Explain Different groups of Montessori Math exercises and 

how the directress should efficiently present exercises through sequential 
and parallel work in various groups. 

The exercises in arithmetic are grouped. There is some sequential work and some parallel work.  

The first group is 'Numbers Through Ten'. The experiences in this group are sequential. When 
the child has a full understanding of Numbers Through Ten, the second group, 'The Decimal 
System' can be introduced. The focus here is on the hierarchy of the decimal system and how 
the system functions. It also starts off the child on the exercises of simple computations, which 
are the operations of arithmetic. 

The third group is started when the Decimal System is well underway. Here onwards, these 
exercises are carried out parallel to the continuation of the Decimal System. This third group, 
i.e. ‘Counting Beyond Ten’, includes the teens, tens as well as linear and skip counting.  

The fourth group involves the ‘Memorization of the Arithmetic Tables’. This stage can be 
commenced alongside the later stages of the Decimal System and the Counting Beyond Ten 
exercises. 

The fifth group is the ‘Passage to Abstraction’. The exercises in this group involve helping the 
child understand the process of each form of arithmetic and the tables of each operation. There 
is an overlap here again. The child who knows the process and tables for the other operations 
and these will not be taken up until he shows readiness. The exercises in this group allow the 
child to drop the use of the material as he is now ready to handle these exercises without 
assisting items. He can then progress to work increasingly with the symbols on paper without 
the need to use materials to attempt to find the answers. 

The sixth and final group of materials, ‘Fractions’, can be worked on parallel to the group of 
Making Abstractions, whereas the early work with the Fractions can begin with Sensorial Work. 

 
  

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Question 2: Explain the exercises which enable the child to count till 
1000? 

Linear Exercises helps children learn to count till 1000 and getting familiar with the  

Decimal System relationships, including the concepts of squares and cubes of numbers. Linear  

counting is presented in two stages; in the first one, children learn to count till 100, and in the  

second one, they master counting till 1000. 

This helps consolidate children’s knowledge of counting. Up until now, they have worked with 
tens and hundreds in the Decimal System. With these exercises however, they now become 
familiar with the sequence of numbers from 1 through to 1000. Counting is a monotonous 
activity and tends to become mechanical over time. Through repetition, children instinctively 
adopt this mechanism of counting. 

When the two chains are placed parallel to each other, they show in a striking and sensorial 
way the difference between the square and the cube of ten. In this way, the Decimal System 
relations are further emphasised to the child. 

Presentation 1: 

Material: 

- The hundred chain consisting of 10 bars of 10. 

- The hundred square 

- Containers having arrow labels: 

1. Green labels marked 1 – 9 

2. Blue labels marked 10 – 90  

3. A red label marked 100 

- A large sized mat or runner. 

  

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- The 100 Chain 

Exercise: ​The children are invited to the chain cabinet and shown the bars on the shelves to 
discuss if they have seen bars like these before. The directress starts by counting with them 
starting from the unit to the 10 bar and unrolling the runner just a little. She shows them how 
to hold the 100 chain by both ends and lay it out vertically at the bottom of the mat. The kids 
are made to place the tray below the 100 chain and slowly fold the chain together to create the 
hundred square, emphasising that it looks like the hundred square. The hundred square is 
placed on top of the folded 100 chain to show that they are the same. The hundred square is 
removed and the chain gently re-straightened. 

The teacher takes out the green unit tickets and tells the kids what they are called. They are 
lined in a vertical line to the left of the 10 chain. The children are then shown the blue ten 
tickets which are placed in a vertical line above the unit tickets. The first ten are labeled using 
the unit tickets and placed to the left of the chain.  

Together, they count from 11 to 20. At the 20 mark, the ticket that says 20 is placed to its right, 

counting by units; as they continue placing the ten tickets until they reach 100. The children 
are made to place the red 100 ticket to the 100. They are told, “You have just counted to 100.” 

She asks, “How many beads are in this chain?”, as they respond with “100”. She then points to 
the hundred square and asks, “And how many are in this?”, as they respond again with “100”. 
All the tickets are then counted alongside the kids: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40,  

50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100. 

They are then counted backwards: 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 

Children are instructed to replace the tickets into their correct envelope and then the rest of the  

material of the 20 bead. 

  

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Presentation 2: 

Material: 

- A Thousand Chain consisting of 100 bars of 10 

- Ten squares of hundred 

- The Thousand Cube Containers having arrow labels: 

1. Green labels marked 1 – 9  

2. Blue labels arrowed 10 – 990 
3. Red labels from 100 – 900  
4. Large green label marked 1,000 

- A large sized mat or runner  

Exercise: ​The directress tells children that they are going to be looking at an even longer chain 
than the 100 chain now. She then has them unroll the runner all the way and hold the 1000 
chain. She then carries the chain to the runner, with all of the strands laid out straight and has 
the kids bring over the cube and the large box on a tray over to the runner along with the 
hundred squares. She tells them that they are going to try to fold the chain similar to how they 
did with the 100 chain. She makes a hundred and asks the child what she just made and places a 
hundred square next to it, repeating until the whole chain has been folded into a hundred 
squares. The children can begin to make them independently after a while.  

The teacher then places each of the hundred squares next to the hundred squares she has made 
with the kids, before placing the hundred squares on top of the hundred squares made with 
them. She then counts with the children to see how many hundred squares there are in total. 
She continues to have the children place each hundred squares on top of each other now similar 
to how she did herself earlier, and iterates how this now looks just like the cube, and that when 
we have 10 hundred squares, we know that we have 1000 beads. 

 
  

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Now she places the cube next to the ten hundred squares (placed on top of one another) to show 
this to children. She then has them gently pull the 1,000 chain straight and lay out all of the 
tickets. Each bead is counted and the correct ticket placed as and when needed similar to 
Presentation 1. When the number 100 is reached, the ticket as well as a hundred square is 
placed next to the 100th bead, repeating for every hundred reached, including the 1000th bead.  

At the end of the exercise, she looks at the world of the children, going back to the beginning 
and counting; 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900. She then asks them how many they 
had at the end: 1000. 

They finally go back to the beginning and count the tens; 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, . . . 100, 110, 120, . . 
. 400, 410, 420, . . . 980, 990, 1000. The children are then told to count backwards by tens. As the 
labels have to be placed at the end of each bar, children easily recognise they have made a 
mistake in counting. The material can now be put away.  

 
  

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Question 3: Print *Dot Game paper (from the link given below) and send 
three solved problems, each carrying four addends? 
  

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Question 4: Explain the presentations of Multiplication Board and Division 

Board in your own words.Also make illustrations. 

The purpose of multiplication bead board is to provide training in multiplication leading to 
memorization of the important multiplication table 1x1 through 10x10. The box contains a 
holed multiplication working; 100 holes in rows of ten arranged in a square, 100 red beads, a 
box of small plastic cards numbering 1-10 which represent the multiplicand and a red disc. The 
board has a slot on the left side for cards’ insertion. 

Materials: 

- A perforated board with 100 holes in rows of 10 arranged in a square. At the left side of the 

board is a window with a slot for the insertion of the cards. 

- A red wooden disc 

- Tables of multiplication 

- A set of cards from 1 to 10 

Exercise: T​he directress shows children the materials and the numbers along the top of the 
board and tells them that these numbers tell us how many times to take a number. She also 
demonstrates how to slide the ‘4’ card into the slot on the side of the board, as she tells them, 
“This tells us how we will be doing the Table of 4.” She then places the little red disc above the 
1 at the top of the board and says, “This tells us we need to take 4 one time.” Using the red 
beads, she places 4 one time in a vertical line and asks the children to count the total number of 
beads that are on the board and tells them, “4 x 1 is 4”. 

The children are then instructed to write the answer on the paper next to the equation. She 
then moves the disc over above the ‘2’ and tells the children, “We now need 4 two times, but we 

already have 4 one time.” The children are told to place the red beads in a vertical line next to 
the first four and then count the total number of beads on the board. She then says “4 x 2 is 8”. 
The directress repeats it till the children reach 4 x 4 and then they are told to say the equation 
along with the directress. 

 
  

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If the children are making the table easily, they are shown that 4 x 7 is 28, and once they reach 4 
x 8, count from 28 up four more. This exercise should be repeated until they have finished the 
board. 

The directress makes the children read all of the equations and answers are written on a piece of 
paper. They can check their work on Multiplication Chart 1. 

 
  

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Question 5: How is Stamp Game introduced to the child?Also explain how 

subtraction problems can be solved with stam game. 

Stamp Game: 

Materials: 

- Large quantities of wooden squares of equal size about 1 inch square like stamps: 
1. Each stamp of 1 is green marked with ‘1’. 
2. Each stamp of 10 is blue marked with ‘10’. 
3. Each stamp of 100 is red marked with ‘100’. 
4. Each stamp of 1000 is green marked with ‘1000’. 
- A pencil and ruler 
- Special grid paper 

Introduction: The directress starts by inviting the children to come work with her and bring 
along the paper, the box of wooden tiles and the tray from ‘Introduction to Quantity’. She 
introduces the materials to the child; she shows children the Green Tile with the unit 1 written 
on it and tells them that this is the same as the unit bead. Similarly, she shows them the Blue 
Tile with the unit 10 written on it and informs them that this is similar to the ten-bar. She 
continues to repeat this for the tiles of 100 and 1000. 

The Three Period Lesson is also carried out with the 1, 10, 100 and 1000 tiles by showing 
children that when we take out the unit 1 tiles, we place them directly in front of the 
compartment where the other 1’s are. They are told that they are going to take out 5. As they 
take out 5 of the unit 1 tiles, they are all placed in front of the unit 1 compartment. They are 
then placed back and the children are given a few different numbers to be taken out, for 
example, 3 tens, 5 hundreds, or 2 thousands. They are then given a larger number and told, 
“Now we are going to make a larger number. This number will have 3 units, 5 tens, 2 hundreds, 
1 thousand.” As they are given each number, have them take out the appropriate tiles. 

The directress then counts to check the final product and then has the children put 
the tiles back into their compartments. 

 
  

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Subtraction: 

Exercise 1: The children are invited to come and work with the directress who writes down on a 
paper two different numbers and introduces the new subtraction sign. 

The children are instructed to construct the first number and then told that we are going to take 
3 units from the four units constructed. Have them move 3 units off to the left side of the table, 
count how many units are left and write the answer. Next, have them take 2 tens away from the 
5 and move them off to the side of the table. Count and then write how many tens are left. 
Repeat for the hundreds and thousands. Finally, read the answer out loud with the children. 

Exercise 2:​ The directress writes a first large number and a second number under it, making 
sure that the numbers lead to dynamic subtraction. She has the children create the first 
number, as she asks them how many units are we going to take away, i.e. 3. But as the child 
becomes stuck, she says that we are going to have to change one of the tens for units, as she 
  

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takes out ten units and replaces it with one of the ten tiles. She then has them take 3 units away 
from the now 12 units and places the unneeded tiles off to the side of the table. 

 
  

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The teacher has the child write how many units he has left. She then repeats for the tens, 
hundreds, and thousands, changing as and when needed, reading the final answer with the 
children as well as discussing the entire question problem in its entirety. 

All this is repeated until children feel comfortable to work alone. Children should be 
encouraged to pose their own problem examples and guided in the process.