A bona fide Montessori math manipulative for learning the decimal system and all four basic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Let’s see how the stamp game can boost your 4+ year old’s number crunching…
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Top 3 Best Montessori Stamp Games You Can Buy
- (01) Elite Montessori Decimal System Stamp Game
- (02) Adena Montessori Math Materials Stamp Game
- (03) Kid Advance Montessori Wooden Stamp Game
(01) Elite Montessori Decimals System Stamp Game
This set of Montessori stamps helps children move from a concrete to a more abstract understanding of the decimal system, and introduce addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
This stamp game corresponds to the version of the (related and separate) Montessori golden beads material that gave the child the structure and knowledge of the decimal system — which demonstrates in a visual way the mathematical process from a very young age.
Now the kiddo’s graduated to the stamp game. Once introduced, it prepares the child for pencil and paper work and memorization of facts, and offers opportunities for individual practice.
This montessori stamp set comes made of wood, with all the pieces in the same material. The box measures 13×8 inches and contains wooden squares that come in three colors: green (‘1′),blue (’10’) and red (‘100). Each stamp of 1000 is marked in green with ‘1000’. The child will use a ruler, a pencil and a piece of paper with a grid to correct the math problem. The box has the versatility of coming with compartments so that all the colors are separated and the child can select the stamps and perform the various mathematical operations.
(02) Adena Montessori Materials Stamp Game
This stamp game board is very similar to the previous version that I suggest, the only difference is that the board is a little bigger, the measures are 15×9.5 inches. It also has the wooden stamps, with the representative colors of the decimal system, and the printing of the numbers on the stamps to perform the 4 mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Overall, a standard Montessori stamp game set.
(03) Kid Advance Montessori Wooden Stamp Game
This kids advance stamp set has a board size of 13x 7.5 inches. All the material is made of wood, and presents the tokens, stamps and decimal unit system with the corresponding green, red and blue colors. Like the rest of proposals, it will allow the child to acquire abstract skills to perform mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The game does not come with instructions, so you will have to know how to use it as we have given some examples, or seek more information with informative videos, because being montessori material, has several ways to teach it to children.
It is a resource suitable for children from 4 to 12 years old.
In principle, it is played by teaching addition and subtraction in the form of columns, presenting the units, tens, hundreds and thousands (depending on the mathematical problem) side by side, and then the columns are paired according to the case of operation to be performed, it is very visual, but also allows to guide the child to abstraction through operations with higher numbers.
(04) Bonus: Montessori Stamp Game Paper Printouts (Low-Cost Alternative)
Color Stamp Game PDF Printout → Montessori Guide on Etsy
This downloadable stamp board option allows the child to represent the mathematical operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication through the columns with 5 divisions, delimited with the colors of the green, red and blue stamps.
The symbol of each box will allow the child to identify which operation to perform, and the colors will be the guide to place the segmented problem. It has a row of 5 boxes to place the answer to the problem and comes with a kit with 3 pages: one of addition with 4 boxes for problems, one of subtraction with 4 boxes for problems, and one of multiplication with 4 boxes for problems.
It is important to emphasize that they come with blank boxes, the proposals of mathematical problems we will have to make them ourselves to the children.
After the online payment, it is printed immediately. An economical option to continue practicing through this resource.
Complete Stamp Game Materials → Making Montessori Ours on Etsy
This online downloadable is an authentic game of stamps but completely on paper, that is to say, just like the options we saw in 3D on wood, but here all the cards are represented on stickers or paper (it will depend on us to choose the type of material to print).
In addition to including the numbers represented according to the colors and decimal system of this popular game, it also has a page with proposed problems of static addition, addition with carries, static subtraction, subtraction with carries, multiplication and division. It is an economical version for those who can not afford to buy the wooden resource.
It is presented as a pdf file and can have the option of printing in color or black and white, the latter, I do not recommend it because it would lose the visual sense for the child to locate the decimal system by color.
Advanced laser cut digital download → Sincerely Taylor Made on Etsy
If we have already presented the economical single-sided printing option, this laser printing version is an ideal alternative to have more durability with the set of stamps.
It comes complete with all the representations for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and even a box for storage.
It is recommended to print it with Glowforge Laser and 3mm wood. The use of different thickness materials will require you to edit slots and tabs for the storage box in the design software. The results of this board proposal may vary from the image shown by the supplier depending on the materials and lasers chosen. The files offered for download have been tested for compatibility with Illustrator, CorelDraw, Inkscape, Glowforge User Interface and Lightburn.
In addition, they include instructions for post-printing assembly on wood, and alternatives on how to present the resource to the child.
What is the Montessori Stamp Game?
Once the child has assimilated the general functioning of the decimal system, generally through the use of the golden beads or the wooden decimal system, the game of stamps can be used to advance in the abstraction of mathematical operations. The child has to resort to the use of paper and pencil, memorizing data and accounts.
The resource of stamps is an amazing material of the Montessori methodology. Through the manipulation of the so-called Montessori stamps, the learning of the four fundamental mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The Montessori stamps game consists of a wooden box with a lid divided into compartments. In each compartment there are counters, stamps with quantities and red, green and blue pawns. It is a very visual, sensory material that allows the child to place the pieces in order.
The various pieces included in the stamp game kit allow kids to interface easily with all sorts of concrete learning opportunities. The units are represented with green color and there are a total of 52 pieces with the number 1. The tens are blue stamps, 54 in total with the number 10. The hundreds are also represented in red with the number 100 (50 tokens) and in green the thousand, with the number 1000 (22 tokens).
There are also colored pawns, green, red and blue, and round tokens also in the same colors.
Best Age + Stage for the Stamp Game
The Montessori stamp set can be introduced to boys and girls as young as 4 or 5 years old, and can be used by children through to 6 even 12 years old.
With this game, children take a step in the evolution from the concrete to the abstract. In this way, they learn to work individually on mathematical operations.
In this material, as in all Montessori, the process is more important than the result. When the child works it repeatedly and masters it, the concepts of unit, ten, hundred and thousand are engraved in his mind, in a very graphic way, and he understands what the real meaning of the operations is. It is one more step towards the conquest of abstraction.
How does the Stamp Game teach math?
To use this material, for example with addition, we must first explain to the children that there are two types of addition, addition without carried, the addends do not exceed 10, and with carried, the addends exceed 10.
For example, if we want to teach them addition without carried, we can create a board with columns and rows to place the units, tens, hundreds and thousands, the addition and equal symbols and the result.
Before starting the addition, the terminology of the addition and equal signs should be explained to the child. Also, the child should be asked what addition is, to check that he/she understands the concept.
Here’s a 5-step summary for how to use the stamp game to teach addition…
- To start, place the number with the units in its corresponding column and so on with the tens, hundreds and thousands.
- Next, place the addition symbol in the sign column.
- Next, place the next number in the NEXT corresponding column (as we mentioned before).
- Once the two numbers are placed, we join the stamps, the units of the first number with the units of the second one in its column, and the same with the tens, hundreds and thousands. (See how the sum is the union of numbers?)
- Finally, count the total units and write them down on paper (the same with the tens, hundreds and thousands), and thus we will have the final result.
To perform the operations of subtraction, multiplication and division, a similar pattern will be followed, only that the pawns come into play, it is also very intuitive, because it is still with the decomposition of the decimal system.
