The Montessori Number Rods: Introducing the Quantity of Numbers
The Montessori Number Rods are the first material used to introduce children to numbers and quantity. As children handle and explore the rods, they begin to understand the numbers 1 through 10—their names, order, and the quantity each one represents. This hands-on experience transforms abstract ideas into something real and meaningful.
Target ages: 3 ½ to 4 ½ years old.
| Table of Contents |
| What is the Montessori Method? What is the Math Area in Montessori? The Mathematical Mind Quantity Before Symbol Number Rods Presentation Conclusion |
What is the Montessori Method?
The Montessori Method follows the child’s interests and needs. Maria Montessori created different areas in the classroom (Practical Life, Sensorial, Math and Language) with specific materials to teach children different skills that will help them in their everyday life.
If you think about a normal school, you would probably imagine a big chalkboard on the wall and all of the students sitting at their desk looking at the teacher. In a Montessori classroom this looks very different. The main difference between a Montessori school and a traditional one is that the teachers give one-on-one lessons, or very small group lessons, and follow the interest of each child. Individual lessons are a great way for teachers to get to know the children and their needs. We use tangible materials that are built to teach specific skills, perfect to catch the attention of the little ones since they are using their hands. Maria Montessori once said: “Movement of the hand is essential. Little children revealed that the development of the mind is stimulated by the movement of the hands. The hand is the instrument of the intelligence”.
In the Montessori classroom, children are also allowed to walk freely in their environment and choose the work they want to do that has been previously presented by the teacher. Seeing children walking around the classroom like this can look a little messy at times, but I like to call it “organized chaos“. Children have a lot of freedom but within set boundaries.
The Montessori Method has been such a big eye opener for me in the way I want to teach and educate my children. I hope it inspires you too!
What is the Math Area in Montessori?
Since mathematics can be a challenging subject for young children, Maria Montessori transformed abstract concepts into concrete materials that children could see, touch, and manipulate.
Through her carefully designed lessons, children explore numbers from 0 to 10, the decimal system, the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), fractions, and much more—all before the age of six! The fact that such young children can grasp these complex ideas speaks to the brilliance of the materials she created.
Maria Montessori often said that “the hand is the instrument of the mind”, emphasizing her belief that learning happens through purposeful, hands-on experience.
The Mathematical Mind
Whenever you are crossing the street, buy something at a store, scheduling your time or measuring ingredients to make a meal, you are using your mathematical mind. Mathematics is not just found in books but in the world that surrounds us. Maria Montessori said that our mind is mathematical by nature. We are all born with a mathematical mind that have the following abilities:
- Curiosity and interest, which leads to investigation.
- An awareness of the world that leads us to observe everything around us.
- The ability to reason and make judgements.
- The ability to make order out of chaos.
- Organize and classify information.
- The ability to complete a task through repetition, exactitude and precision.
Screens and technology have put to sleep a lot of this innate abilities that we are born with. We should be conscious on how we use them with our children so that we make sure their spark for investigation, exploration and curiosity is still there!
Quantity Before Symbol
It is not uncommon for children to know the name of the numbers by memory, but that does not mean they understand the quantity that is associated with those numbers.
Maria Montessori prepared different materials to understand this abstract concept of numbers to children. The first lesson she created for this was the Number Rods. The Number Rods introduce children to the quantity of each number (e.g.: “two is a bigger quantity than one”) in a concrete and tactile way. After this, we will teach the Sandpaper Numbers (symbol) for our children to learn what every number looks like. The materials that follow after that will reinforce the learning of the quantity and symbol together (like the Number Rods with Numerals, Spindle Boxes, Cards and Counters or the Memory Game of Numbers).
When we teach the numbers to our children in this way, we create a strong foundation for more complicated and abstract math in the future.
Number Rods Presentation
You could make your own Number Rods, but for this material I just decided to buy it since you can find pretty reasonable prices online. The Numbers Rods I have are half the size of the ones you would find in the classroom, but I find that for at home teaching they work well and are much easier to store. If you are interested, these are the ones I have!
Preparation: Your child has worked previously with the Red Rods and is able to build them in sequence
Materials: The Number Rods
Age: 3 ½ to 4 ½ years old
Presentation:
- Go to the shelf and introduce the activity to your child: “These are the Number Rods. Let’s bring them one-by-one to the carpet”.
- Starting with the longest one, hold each rod horizontally with both hands by the edges and place them, mixed up, on the carpet.
- Sit at the carpet with your child.
- Start the exercise by looking for the first rod: “I am looking for a special one.”
- Take the longest rod and place it on top of the rug. Place the red side of the rod to your left.
- Look for the next rod and place it under the first one, aligning the left sides nicely.
- After placing two rods, invite your child to do the rest, arranging them from the longest to the shortest.
- When done, show your child how to count them:
- Take the first three rods that represent the numbers 1, 2 and 3, and set them apart from the rest placing them on the bottom of the rug.
- Start with the rod that represents number 1 and count it by touching the individual red segment and say: “one”. Then, hold rod number 1 on both ends with both hands and name it: “one”. Invite your child to count it too.
- Now do the same with rod number 2. In this case, you will count rod number 2 by touching each segment (red and blue) individually and counting each time: “one, two”. Then hold rod number 2 on both ends with both hands and name it: “two”. Invite your child to count rod number two.
- Repeat the same process with rod number 3.
- Holding the ends of the rods with both hands will give your child the sensation that, as the numbers change, they become bigger and bigger.
- Do a Three Period Lesson with the three different rods:
- Naming: name the three rods for your child as you point at them (“this is 1”, “this is 2”, “this is 3”).
- Recognition: give them different commands so that they can start recognizing the name of each number (“give me 2”, “place 1 on your foot”, “point to 3”, “place 2 on your knee”, etc.). Make it fun!
- Recall: when you see your child feels comfortable recognizing each rod, point to each one of them and ask every time: “what is this?”. Your child will say the name of each rod. If they can’t remember, you can tell them and try this lesson again another day.
- When done, do the next three rods (4, 5, 6) if your child is still interested. We will then do the rest of the rods another day.
- Invite your child to continue working mixing the pieces on the carpet and putting them back in order as many times as they want.
- Fade and observe.
NOTE:
- Over the next several days we will repeat the Three Period Lessons until they can identify and count all ten rods.
- Make sure you exemplify counting from left to write. This serves as a preparation for writing later on.
Following Exercises:
- “Bring me…” Game: Have the rods set up somewhere mixed up on a carpet in the room. Sit down on the other side of the room and tell them to bring you different number rods: “Bring me rod number 4”. When they bring you the rod, count it in front of them verifying that they brought you the right rod. If it’s not what we asked, invite them to bring the correct one: “This is rod number 5, I asked for rod number 4. Could you bring me rod number 4?”
Conclusion
When a small child sees numbers written on a piece of paper, that means nothing to them. But when they can see and feel with their hands the different quantities of the numbers changing (in this case the bigger the number, the longer the rod), they start making some mathematical connections. Learning math in this way will help children understand hard and abstract concepts that will help them engage in more complex math later on.
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