The Montessori Mathematic Materials

Internalizing Concepts Through the Hand

From her work with the sensorial materials, the child has already begun her orientation into the world of mathematics. Here she has isolated qualities – form, quantity, dimensions, change and distance – physically, using her hands. In this way she has received an embodiment of the mathematical world. To complement, from the earliest Practical life activities, she has had practice in exactness, precision and calculation, and has had to employ organization in their execution.

Formal math in the Montessori classroom employs manipulation of materialized abstractions, and is organized into five groups:

Introduction to number – units of quantity 1-10

Introduction to the Decimal System –(base 10 arithmetic), concrete experience of units, tens, hundreds, thousands, including experiences of the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

Introduction to teens and tens, and linear and skip counting

Arithmetic tables – material demonstrations of the four operations in table form to encourage internalization

Abstraction – the process where the child leaves behind the manipulation of the materials and internalizes the function of arithmetic.