About the Material
The Montessori Stamp Game for lower elementary math teaches the process of all four math operations: Addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. It also reinforces place value shown through a repeated color pattern that continues for all subsequent Montessori math operation work: green represents units/ones, blue represents tens, and red represents hundreds.
Preceding Material
The Golden Bead material precedes The Stamp Game for lower elementary in the Montessori math sequence. The Stamp Game is less concrete and more abstract than the Golden Beads. Instead of physical beads showing the quantity of a number, each square stamp has a numeral written on it representing the quantity it stands for 1, 10, 100, 1,000.
If your child has not used the Golden Bead material, starting with the Stamp Game in lower elementary is fine for practicing place value and using it with equations. However, if your child is very young (preschool) or is struggling conceptually with the decimal system, place value, or operations, I suggest starting with the Golden Beads.
The Lessons
Introduction to the Stamp Game
Building and Reading Numbers
Addition
Multiplication
Subtraction
Division
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Introduction to the Stamp Game
Always introduce a new concept by starting with the known and moving into the unknown. Compare and contrast the Golden Beads and The Stamp Game. If you are not comparing to the Golden Beads, simply make observations about the stamps.
Building and Reading Numbers
When introducing a new math material let children explore it by building and reading numbers before working on equations. Spend time building numbers with the stamps and asking your child or students to read the numbers. Allow them to build numbers for you or others to read. This is a great opportunity to assess their number composition and reading skills.
Stamp Game Addition Lessons
Addition lessons aim to teach children to combine two numbers (addends) to get a larger sum, to introduce the vocabulary “addend” and “sum,” to introduce the addition symbol “+”. It is suitable for lower elementary, ages 5-9.
The child builds a number into the thousand just as in the building and reading numbers lesson. He builds a second number under the first number lining up the place value categories. He then combines the stamps in each place value category.
Separate lessons are given for equations with no regrouping, with regrouping, and zeros in the addends.
Stamp Game Multiplication Lessons
Multiplication lessons aim to teach the process of multiplication as repeated addition of the same number a set number of times, to introduce the vocabulary “multiplicand”, “multiplier”, and “product”, and to introduce the multiplication symbol “x”. They are suitable for lower elementary ages 5-9.
The child builds a given number with the stamps multiple times and combines them in each place value category beginning with the unit’s place.
Separate lessons are given for equations with no regrouping, with regrouping, and zero in the multiplicand.
Stamp Game Subtraction Lessons
Subtraction lessons aim to teach the child to subtract an amount from a given number to determine what is left, to introduce the vocabulary “minuend”, “subtrahend”, and “difference”, and to introduce the subtraction symbol “-“. It is suitable for lower elementary ages 5-9.
In a subtraction equation, we take away from a given amount so we do not build the bottom number (the subtrahend). We take away from what we have, pulling it beneath the minuend, which essentially becomes the subtrahend in the equation. The answer (the difference) is what is left at the top after taking away the indicated amount. This is a major difference from the addition and multiplication equations previously experienced.
Stamp Game Division Lessons
Division lessons aim to teach a child to divide a specified amount by sharing (distributing) equally among a set number of groups and finding the share of each group, and to introduce the vocabulary “dividend”, “divisor”, and “quotient”. It is suitable for lower elementary and upper elementary ages 5-12.
The child gathers a given amount of stamps and shares the quantity with a given number of groups. The quotient is the share that each group received.
Separate lessons are given for equations with no regrouping, with regrouping, remainders, zero in the dividend (amount to be shared), two-digit divisors (2,829 ÷ 23), 3-digit divisors (5,232 ÷ 436), and zero in the divisor (7,463 ÷ 203).
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Which Montessori Stamp Game lesson would benefit your child’s learning best? What support do you need to start using the Stamp game in your homeschool or classroom? Have you used the Stamp Game before? What worked or didn’t work?