[nfb-talk] abacus needed

Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E] powerst at dcpcepn.nci.nih.gov
Mon Feb 9 20:38:53 UTC 2009


Good luck finding it, Mike.
If you do not find one, make something with large beads.  A bracelet, a
necklace.  Even building blocks will help a kid learn to count.  
Terry Powers
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Bullis [mailto:mabullis at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 11:22 AM
To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] abacus needed

Hi Terrie:
I'm not a teacher and I may be confused.  But, having said that, and
recognizing that being wrong never stopped me, let me explain why I
think that ten beads is better for small children.
Picture adding eight plus three  on an abacus with nine beads.  You put
eight beads down and then want to add three more.  You add one bead and
then must know that in order to add two more beads you have to bring
down a bead on the tens row and bring down one bead on the ones row.  

For kids, it makes more sense to them if you are able to bring down two
beads on the ones row.  Now since you have filled up the ones row with
beads, you trade that in for a single bead on the tens row.  You know
that you brought down two beads before running out so now you can bring
down one more bead.  So, in front of you now you have one bead on the
tens row and one bead on the ones row.  So, you have eleven.

For base 10 I agree with you that there are only nine units possible and
for representational purposes nine beads make sense.  But with small
children, we're not talking about base 10 and logic.  We're talking
about counting.
We started with ten fingers for counting purposes.  Every time we
reached ten on our fingers we made a mark on the ground or whatever and
then started again with our fingers.  That makes sense to kids and it
made sense to us in our past.  No, there isn't a way to express ten with
a single number so we use a one and a zero.  But, with fingers and with
beads the ten can still exist.

Hope this confuses you thoroughly (laugh).
Mike
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E]
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 8:17 AM
To: mabullis at hotmail.com; NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] abacus needed

Mike;
How can you have ten beads, it should be nine.  Our numbers go zero to
nine.
Then we go to the next tolumn or the tens.
I have only used the one with a bead for five and four one beads.

Terry Powers
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Bullis [mailto:mabullis at hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 5:03 PM
To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] abacus needed

Actually, I have found the cranmer abacus at aph as Ken suggests.  I'm
looking for a ten bead abacus but I don't know what that's called.  I
think math makes more sense to kids when there are ten beads.  The value
of the cranmer was in speed of use but in early learning I liked the ten
bead.
Mike
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Alicia Richards
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 4:32 PM
To: mabullis at hotmail.com; NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] abacus needed

Mike, are you talking about a Cranmer abacus, or something different? 

Alicia 

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