The Golden Beads are a brilliant Montessori material that help the child understand place value and the formation of large numbers in a very concrete way. However, they can be infrequently chosen if we don’t get a bit playful with it. So here are some fun games you can play with the Montessori Golden Beads to help build that interest!

Bring Me Game

Tell your child a number to bring, then she has to find it with the cards, then bring that number with the golden beads.  You can do this one place value at a time (“Bring me 400”) or if she’s really good at it all ready, tell her a combined number to bring (“Bring me 53/450/453/9453, etc”).

How Much Do I Have? Game

Fill up a tray with a large number of golden beads (make sure not to go over 10 of any kind unless you’ve already worked on exchanging).  Bring them over to the work rug and say, “I’ve collected a whole bunch of golden beads!  How much do I have?” Sort the beads by unit, then count each and find the corresponding number card.  Put the number cards together to form the full number.

Secret Number

“I’m going to write down a secret number and then you can make it with the golden beads!” Write a number on a piece of paper and sneak it over to her.  It’s really nothing special, but for some reason my daughter thought this was the greatest thing ever.  You could also have a jar full of numbers that you’ve already written, and she can reach in and pull one out, then make it with the golden beads.

Finding numbers in the wild

If you have a newspaper or magazine subscription, look through it to find some big numbers.  Then make the numbers with the golden beads.

Numbers in Context Cards

My girls loved these Numbers in Context golden bead cards by Montessori Kiwi!  They each have number facts like “An elephant can walk up to 195 km in a day” and then the child can make that number with the golden beads. 

I also have this printable Montessori Golden Beads Extensions Bundle that has a bunch of materials your child can complete independently, and it also includes a printable version of the Golden Bead material.

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