A-ha Montessori Moment

Two Upper Elementary students had an A-ha Montessori moment yesterday that I would like to share…. They had been doing the decanomial work which introduces squaring and cubing and is a precursor to multiples and factors. The students began by laying out beads from the bead bar box (1 one-bar taken once is one, 1 one-bar taken twice is two, etc, then 1 two-bar taken once is two, 1 two-bar taken twice is four, etc, etc, up to doing this with ten-bars). Doing this they were able to identify when a number was squared because the bead bars literally formed a square.

The next step was to realize when the cube number was formed by building a cube with the squares. Once they had all the cubes they built a “tower”. Their A-ha moment came when they realized that the tower of cubes they had just built looked undeniably like the tower of cubes (aka the pink tower) they had built way back when they were in a primary classroom.

In addition to the Math materials in our primary classrooms, the Sensorial materials also provide a foundation for math, just as the pink tower reinforced the concept of the decanomial work. Similarly, Upper El students will learn the algebraic formulas for the binomial and trinomial cubes they “build” in the primary classrooms. I was delighted to be included in the A-ha moment (the students were excited to share their work with me). Maria Montessori really was a genius!