Do you remember when you first saw a million of something? One of the great things of Montessori is concrete representation of concepts, including getting to see what one million looks like!
The hierarchical cube, which Montessori teachers present to students throughout the elementary years helps reinforce understanding of place values. The material consists of a tiny unit cube, a few millimeters on each side, and progresses from there to include a ten-bar, a hundred square, a thousand cube, a ten-thousand bar, a hundred-thousand square, and a million cube, which is equivalent to one million tiny units.
This afternoon, Westwood preschool students were shown these materials. This presentation was inspired by the children’s hunger for more and more knowledge. After studying the thousand cube, the children wonder about bigger numbers and how they look in a cube.
Preschoolers were very excited to see the difference between the small one unit and the large million cube. They all received a better understanding of the numbers they love to work with!
Some of the preschoolers wanted to know what the largest number was, making the assumption that if the alphabet ends with ‘z’, that numbers must end somewhere. This led to a discussion about infinity, a concept that continues to intrigue the students!
The million cube presentation was given by Ms. Scott of P2 to all preschoolers that do not nap after lunch.
