L has become more and more interested in numbers lately, so I am taking full advantage and redoing a lot of our math works!  She is pretty good with the Sandpaper Numbers 1-5, so I made this One-to-One Correspondence work to show the correlation between the written number and the quantity.

This is super easy to make for yourself — and you can use any small objects you have at home!  I found these foam cubes in the bargain bins at Target, so I decided to use those since they were easily traceable.

Montessori math works have a particular way of corresponding number and quantity — the object representing 1 always goes in the upper left corner (not in the center of the card).  For 2, you place two objects side by side.  For 3, it’s two objects side by side and then one on the left side below the first two.  It continues in this fashion for all the numbers.  It’s done this way to show the even/odd and more/less.

To present the work, I trace the number and say, “This says 1.”  Then I place the cube on the square and say, “This is 1.”  I continue all the way through 5.  Once L has mastered sandpaper numbers 6-10, I will add those numbers with quantities.