Manual technical club & Montessori bank game with our Kindergarteners

Benjamin Preschool Senec and Pezinok

Kindergarten Class, 5-6yo - Senec

Introducing the Montessori Bank Game

During our afternoon activities, our kindergarten children had the opportunity to explore the structure of our number system through the Montessori Bank Game. The aim of this activity was to help children understand how numbers are built using the Montessori Golden Bead material. Single beads represent units, ten beads form a bar representing ten, ten bars make a square representing one hundred, and ten squares form a cube representing one thousand.

During the activity, children worked together in different roles. Some children acted as bankers, while others requested specific numbers. At the beginning, everyone received a random selection of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. The children first ordered their materials and counted what they had. When they collected ten of the same category, they visited the “bank” to exchange them for the next value, for example, ten units were exchanged for one ten, or ten tens for one hundred. The exchanges  were the most exciting parts of the activity. They helped children clearly see the structure of the decimal system and understand place value in a tangible way.

This experience also prepares children for future mathematical learning. By practicing exchanges, it prepares children for addition and subtraction situations where numbers “pass over” the tens place. Experiences like this show how joyful and meaningful learning mathematics can be.

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Kindergarten Class, 5-6yo - Pezinok

Manual Technical Club

Children in our preschool develop in various ways through different activities. Preparing kids for practical life is just as important as knowing how to count or write letters. Being able to button up, tie a knot, wrap something, hammer a nail, or create a pattern are skills that not only build attention, patience, focus, hand-eye coordination, but also the ability to follow steps and develop creativity. We’re grateful to have one kind person in the preschool, who with love and skillful hands prepares for the little ones' handmade toys. And the children, together with her and me, started a manual club. We began with working with wood,  where the kids mastered the skill of hammering a nail without hammering their own finger :-) Once they practiced, they created a pattern with nails and wrapped it with yarn - preparation for the next activity - working with yarn. After a few club classes and focused threading, they went home happily with a little octopus and a hat. The last practical project in the second trimester was a soft and beautiful scarf that they wove by hand! It wasn’t easy, and yes, they sometimes gave up at the beginning, but later it came naturally to them. The mornings are still cold enough for them to wear their own hand made scarves to the preschool! Now we work on sewing skills. After the children have learned to thread a button and the basic stitch, they work step by step on sewing their own little owl.

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