Ep 49: Beads as Math Tools

In this episode, we explore how simple materials—like beads—can transform your math centers. Beads aren’t just colorful and fun; they’re powerful tools for counting collections, building fine motor skills, and creating patterns. We’ll dive into hands-on activities like Spin and Thread, DIY number racks, and engaging rekenrek games that help students strengthen their number sense and counting strategies. Whether you’re looking for easy prep ideas or creative ways to switch up your manipulatives, this episode is packed with practical tips you can use tomorrow. Tune in and bring new life to your math lessons!

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Spin and Slide

Spin and Thread

Pick Build Cover

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Maybe the craft closet is the next place you are getting your math manipulatives.

(00:11):
Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers, specifically early elementary teachers,
looking to really make an impact in the number sense of their students.
You might be thinking, Lara, what are you talking about? And I'm so glad you asked. Today
I'm going to talk about how you can use beads in your math class. Now something about beads is they are

(00:34):
inexpensive, they are versatile, they are colorful, and
if you have students who might like to sneak a couple things out of the classroom that shouldn't be leaving the classroom,
it is definitely not the end of the world if you lose a bead or two. The first time
I actively remember using beads in the classroom was when I was doing counting collections.

(00:54):
I still need to do an episode on counting collections. I love counting collections for
organizing counts and helping students really understand
quantities of numbers, but we're going to talk about that another time.
The thing I liked about counting collections is I had some students who were ready to count
larger groups of objects, more than 10, more than 20, they were ready and they kind of had this

(01:16):
unofficial goal of being able to count a hundred things and actually count them accurately, but
considering the most math manipulatives, a hundred is a lot. A hundred is a lot of things and I don't necessarily know that I had a hundred of most manipulatives to even
make a little baggie for them to count. So that's when I started using beads. The thing about beads is because they're so small,

(01:39):
you can have a lot of them and it doesn't even really feel like a lot of them. And so I started to put beads into my
counting collections bin as a collection they could count and some of the students who understood that
they would get more things if they choose these tiny manipulatives started to catch on and then everybody wanted to count the beads because they wanted to be able to count a hundred things.

(02:01):
So it's really helpful for quantity and counting things to understand the value of something isn't necessarily based on its physical size, but how many there are and that those two things are very
different. Then from there I started using them for other stations I was doing, other centers I was doing, specifically counting centers because threading those beads on is something the kids really like and it is great for their fine motor skills.

(02:28):
You may notice when students come in, they don't have a lot of fine motor strength or hand strength, which is something they're going to need, especially when they start writing and having to write for longer periods as they get older.
So anytime I can add some fine motor element to a math center, I'm going to do it. So pipe cleaners and beads again from the craft closet are a great way to have your students not only counting but number writing.

(02:53):
So a counting game that you could play is something called like a spin and thread or a roll and thread. And so your students would spin a number or roll a number and then thread that many beads onto their pipe cleaner.
And then if you want some number practice in there, they can also write down how many beads they spun, and then they're practicing counting number writing one to one correspondence, all the things with some fine motor skills in there.

(03:17):
And similar to that, you can have your students make patterns on beads and pipe cleaners. They could pick a card with a pattern stem on it and they have to make that pattern, or they can just make whatever pattern they would like and however many repetitions they would like.
And this is helpful too if kids are really into making patterns, they want to make very, very long patterns but oftentimes they want their patterns to be longer than the space that they have to work with.

(03:42):
So making patterns in small form like mini patterns on pipe cleaners with beads is a great way to have your kids really practicing making repetitions of patterns.
Moving away from counting and patterns, you can use beads to make your own number racks or rec and recs. I really enjoy using rec and recs. It's a different way for students to understand numbers to five numbers to 10 numbers to 20, and the five plus n structure or 10 plus n structure when using rec and recs.

(04:13):
They're often a tool that you don't have enough for a class set, you might not have enough for your students to use as a center, but they're actually very easy to make and I will link below a quick video of how to make them but basically you need a three by five piece of card stock,
either punch two holes or cut two slits kind of close to the middle, and then thread on five beads of one color five of another and do the same with another pipe cleaner and connect them together. So then you have your own DIY rec and recs, which can introduce a whole other way of thinking about numbers to 20 and different math centers that you might not be able to do with any other manipulative or any other math tool.

(04:58):
One of my favorite games using a rec and rec is called pick, build and cover. So your students pick a rec and rec card, they make that same number on their rec and rec. So if it's a seven, they have to figure out how to make a seven on their rec and rec and then cover the number that they get until they cover their whole math.
It's easy to differentiate, you can pick the number range that your kids are using for that game. An issue I have when centers need a bunch of cards is they're so easy to get mixed up and then you're not sure which is which if the sets are complete or not. So when I make games that have cards, I try to code them.

(05:34):
So each set has a tiny icon on the bottom that the kids can see so that they can sort them themselves. So they're going to have their rec and rec image, but also on the bottom of one set there's these little stars or smiley faces or hearts or whatever.
So that if they do end up getting mixed up, which usually happens because they're close to each other, they can tell, oh, this goes with this set and this goes with this set, which saves you time and not having to sort those cards out again and again because they can definitely do that to help you.

(06:02):
And once they are used to making numbers like that on pick and build, you can move them on to a game that's more like spin and slide. So spin and slide has a rec and rec spinner instead of cards so it's definitely quicker to prepare so you don't need all of the little cards.
And so they either spin a rec and rec or spin a number and then they have to make that same number on their rec and rec similar to pick and build. But in this game, you want to challenge the kids to make the number that is shown or the number they spun using the fewest number of slides.

(06:33):
So if you start with number seven, for example, and you're doing pick and build, they might count one by one to get seven over to the other side so that they're showing seven on their rec and rec. With spin and slide, you're challenging them to see if they can show the number seven with the fewest number of slides.
So then they'd have to start to think about how many is seven. And since the rec and rec is split up into five and five, they might start to think about that five plus and structure like oh, five and two more is seven.

(07:04):
So that way they just start counting from five, count two more and slide it all at once instead of sliding one by one. And then after that they can draw the number that they created on the rec and rec recording sheet and write the actual numeral.
So they're getting more practice with numbers like that and understanding which numbers make up other numbers and how to compose and decompose numbers to 20. So I hope that I inspired you to take a look in the craft closet instead of the math closet to get some new manipulatives for your classroom.