Montessori Elementary – The Bead Cabinet

(This article is published with permission from Cynthia Conesa on the topic of Montessori Elementary education Methods and tools)

THE BEAD CABINET is often the first item that draws one’s attention when walking into a Montessori Elementary classroom. Beyond its visual appeal, the Bead Cabinet embodies foundational concepts of numeration, such as linear and skip counting, multiplication, squaring, and cubing; as such, it is one of Montessori’s most ingeniously conceived and designed materials.

Description and Use

The Bead Cabinet consists of a short chain, a long chain, squares, and a cube for each quantity from one to ten. Best described with an example and images, let’s look at the pieces for exploring the multiples of five.

1. A short chain consisting of five five-bars linked together (25 beads in all): When the chain is folded, the square of five is made. This demonstrates to the child that five taken five times gives us the square of five. Put simply, 5 x 5 = 25. For this reason, the short chain is also called the squaring chain.
2. Small, numbered arrows: The child places these pointing to each bead on the first bar of the chain (1 to 5), and hereafter to the beads representing each multiple of five, up to the square (10, 15, 20, 25).
3. Five five-squares: These consist of five five-bars wired together to make five individual squares of five.
4. A long chain consisting of twenty-five five-bars linked together (125 beads in all): First, the chain is extended, and the child places arrows at each multiple of five, up to 125. Then, the child folds the chain such that each set of five five-bars makes a square, resulting in five five-squares lined up against each other.

The five five-squares are each superimposed upon the squares made with the chain. Then, the five five-squares are stacked, resulting in a cube—specifically, five fives (a five-square) taken five times, or (5 x 5) x 5. For this reason, the long chain is also called the cubing chain.

As suggested above, children interact with the Bead Cabinet differently depending on their age and developmental readiness. Initially, they may use the chains for counting to large numbers, with the arrows as the control of error. Next, they learn to skip count. Counting by fives, for example, the child starts with the number five rather than one—a new skill in itself. Skip counting is indirect preparation for multiplication in that the child learns to recognize and identify patterns—the multiples of five end with either five or zero. Finally, the child uses the material not only to learn the concepts of squaring and cubing, but as an introduction to algebra as they construct binomials using two different squares, visually representing the algebraic equation a2 + 2ab + b2. Larger configurations, up to the decanomial, can be constructed and represented algebraically.

It is common to hear parents exclaim during a parent education event, “Oh, so that’s why it’s called the square [or cube] of five!”