MATHEMATICS - GROUP IV - TABLES

Exercise: THE POSITIVE (ADDITION) SNAKE

Material: The bead bars of the short bead/color stair, box of ten bars, and a box containing the
black and white bead stair--you can make your own black and white bead stair (see below) with
extra ten bars and paint them with black and white nail polish.

Practice the snake game several times by yourself before presenting it to a child! It takes a lot
practice to get it right!

In this b & w stair the first 5 bead bars are black, then come 5 black and 1 white, 5 black and 2
white, eight has 5 black and 3 white at the end, nine has 5 black and 4 white, plus a counter (a
thin long piece of paper or a pencil).

black and white bead stair

Presentation:

1. First of all familiarize the child with the black and white stair, and if necessary give a three
period lesson. "What is this?" "1, 2, 3, 4." "What is this?" "I think it is five." "Let's count." "1, 2,
3, 4, 5." Just to make sure, ask the child again, "What is this?"

2. "Now over here we will build up our bead stair starting with the one." Build up the short bead
stair on the top left of your mat or rug.
2. "Now over here we will build up our black and white bead stair starting with the nine." Build
up the b & w bead stair on the top right of your mat/rug.

3. "What is the difference?" "One (bead stair) is going down, the other up."

4. Place about five or seven ten bars on the top middle of your mat or rug. "What are these?"
"The golden bead bars."

"Now, using these colored beads we are going to make a great long snake." In helter skelter order
build a snake (in my example, I placed a nine, a two, an eight, a six, a seven, a three, a four, a
five, and a one from left to right).
"Now we will start counting and we will always count to ten. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." Place a
counter in between the two green beads, and next to the ten beads (that is the nine bar and one of
the two green beads from the two bar) put a golden ten bar.

5. "How many are left? One. So we take the black one bar and place it next to the ten bar."

6. Take the bar of nine and the bar of two and place them at the bottom of your mat/rug. Count
again starting with the black bar of one. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 10." Leave marker as seen
below.

"How many beads are left (in the six bar)?" "1, 2, 3, 4, 5." "We will represent those with a black
five bar." Take away the marker. Place a ten bar. Put the black one bar, the eight bar, and the six
bar at the bottom of your mat/rug.

7. Count again starting with the black bar of five. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 10." Leave marker (in
the seven bar, in-between the five bead and the two bead). "How many are left over (in the seven
bar)? Two. Get the black two. "We are going to represent them with the black bar of two." Take
away the marker. Place a ten bar. Put the five bar and the seven bar at the bottom... Now you
have three ten bars.

8. Continue again. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 10." Leave marker in the five bar in-between the one
and the two bead. "How many are left over? Five. We will represent the five with a black bar of
five." Take away the marker. Place a ten bar. Put the black two, the three, four, and five bars at
the bottom of your mat/rug. "Now we have changed our colored snake to a golden snake."
*You can add up the color beads (and place them next to ten bars) at the bottom of your mat/rug
to make quantities of ten!

9. When the child knows and understands the material, he can make a real long snake with the
bead material.