The abacus has been around in various forms for over 2300 years. It was used for various counting and operational tasks. One might even call it the original math manipulative (unless you count fingers and stones). In my younger years, abaci were relegated to the bottom shelf or used as a toy for the kinesthetic kids. These days, abaci can meet the same fate that the abaci of my youth did. The first known abacus, the Salamis tablet, collected dust for over 2100 years. For all those lonely and banished abaci on dusty shelves everywhere, I dedicate this article on how to represent, add and subtract whole and decimal numbers.
As most teachers know, the use of manipulatives by younger elementary students helps them to understand the concepts of place value and operations later on. In my search for a variety of manipulatives to teach number sense, addition and subtraction, I came across a convenient tool in the abacus. I’m sure it was no coincidence that each row on the abacus included exactly ten beads, but there was no operators manual with the abacus I found. When I found an instruction manual several years later, I found that the manufacturer of the abacus saw it as...
To view and download this full PLR article, you must be logged in. Registration is completely free. Once you create your account, you will be able to browse, search & downlod from our PLR articles database of over "1,57,897+" on 1,000's of niches and 200+ categories without paying a penny. Click here to signup...
