Lower Elementary - Small Bead Frame Multiplication

Lattice Entertain You

eaching preservice elementary teachers, this always comes up. Someone does it, someone else asks what's going on, then some of them love it because it makes so much sense. I see it as removing even more sense from the standard algorithm, which is an achievement. It is a structure though, and that does help some learners organize. But could I humbly suggest an area model instead?

Early Childhood - 45 Layout

Early Childhood - 45 Layout (Units & Tens)

Same goal, different paths—honoring the Montessori journey ✨

These two students are working on the number roll, an activity that strengthens number sequencing, place value understanding, and control of number writing. As they record numbers in order, they are building accuracy, endurance, and confidence with increasingly large quantities.

While both children are completing the same academic work, they are engaging with it in ways that meet their individual developmental needs. One child is using the Stamp Game, a concrete Montessori material that allows the child to physically build each number using units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. This hands-on approach supports a deep, sensorial understanding of place value and quantity before moving fully into abstraction.

The other child is completing the number roll using paper and pencil only, demonstrating readiness to work at a more abstract level. This child is relying on an internalized understanding of quantity and place value, strengthening mental math, number recognition, and fluency.

This is Montessori in action: ✨ The same lesson ✨ The same purpose ✨ Individualized pathways based on readiness

✨ Building Deep Understanding of Multiplication ✨

In Lower Elementary Montessori, students develop a strong, confident understanding of multiplication by working with materials that make abstract math visible and logical.

Through this work, students:

Strengthen their understanding of place value

See how large numbers are built and combined

Work accurately and independently

Focus on the process of multiplication, not just the answer

Build a solid foundation for later abstract and paper‑and‑pencil math

🧮 How the Checkerboard supports this learning:

Students place number tiles along the bottom and the side of the Checkerboard to represent the two numbers being multiplied. Each tile aligns with a specific place value (units, tens, hundreds, thousands).

Students then multiply one digit at a time, placing beads in the colored squares where the bottom number and side number intersect. These intersections clearly show where each part of the multiplication belongs, making place value and quantity relationships easy to see and understand.