Lesson 1: Parts of an abacus for kids
Level 1, Bead Village. An abacus shows numbers with beads. Soon you will see them in your head.
What your child does, card by card
Welcome to AbacusPlay! Let's learn to count with beads, and with your fingers. PlayBuddy opens the lesson: “Hi! I'm PlayBuddy. Welcome to lesson one!”
Two kinds of beads. The top beads and the bottom beads are outlined in yellow while the kids explain. The labels “Top bead = 5” and “Bottom bead = 1” light up as each idea comes. “The dots help you remember. A real abacus has no dots.” Any bead or finger may be tapped afterwards.
Your hand is an abacus too. On the card, “Finger = bottom bead: 1” and “Thumb = top bead: 5” light up one by one. Then the card invites a touch: “Tap a finger, or the thumb, and watch the beads.”
Touch the bar to count: a bead counts only when it touches the bar. Yellow marks the bar while the kids talk about it. After the show, the child can touch: “Push a bead to the bar and see its number.”
Clear means zero: no bead touches the bar. No finger is up. The beads show 7 and go back to zero. The card ends on a touch: “We always start from clear.”
Try it puts a green ring on each next bead; your child makes 1 and 5.
A tiny practice with no ring: make 1, clear the abacus, make 5 and clear the abacus, each number made from the one before without clearing.
Copy me: the hand in the lower window shows 1, 4 and 5, one at a time, and your child makes the same number on the beads.
You're ready! You know the beads, the bar and your hands.
What this lesson trains
9 answers, roughly five minutes: 9 moves of the beads, 4 of them with the top bead and 5 with bottom beads. 2 of them are clears. The biggest number is 5, all on the ones rod; the 2 rods to its left stay clear and are named on a touch.
It starts with doing: make 1 and 5.
Fingers and hands
In the lower window two drawn hands work as a finger abacus and always match the beads: a finger up is a bottom bead (1), the thumb out is the top bead (5), a closed hand is zero. In this lesson the hands show zero and 1, 4, 5 and 7.
The fingers lead in Copy me (1, 4 and 5); the beads answer.
What PlayBuddy and PlayType say
PlayType: “And I'm PlayType! Today we meet the abacus.”
PlayType: “Each top bead is worth five. We gave it five dots to help you remember!”
PlayBuddy: “Each bottom bead is worth one. It has one dot to help you!”
PlayBuddy: “Your hand is an abacus too! Each finger is a bottom bead.”
PlayType: “And your thumb is the top bead. It's worth five!”
PlayBuddy: “A bead counts only when it touches the bar.”
PlayType: “No beads on the bar? That's zero. We call it clear.”
PlayBuddy: “Make one. Push a bead up to the bar!”
PlayType: “Now make five. Bring the top bead down!”
PlayBuddy: “You're ready! Next, we learn zero.”
Stars
9 answers: a clean run gives three stars; up to 2, two stars. A number counts as a slip only when it stays wrong for a moment and is not on the way to the answer, so a child who moves beads one at a time is never marked down. After two slips on one task the green ring comes back.
About Bead Village
Bead Village is Level 1 of nine (grade K to 1): the parts, zero, 1 to 9 on one rod, tens and hundreds, reading and setting numbers. In your head: a picture of beads flashes, say the number.