The Flat Bead Frame is one of the most elegant bridges between the concrete and the abstract in our math curriculum here. Your children work with very large numbers on this academic material, up to the hundreds of millions, while still manipulating tangible representations of each place value.
Unlike many elementary materials designed for group exploration, this work is typically done individually or with a partner amid the classroom’s collaborative hum.
From the Large Bead Frame to the Flat Bead Frame
At a glance, this material may look similar to the Large Bead Frame that your children used during Kindergarten and early elementary grades at Wheaton Montessori School, but it represents a meaningful step forward in abstraction. The earlier frame is color-coded, with distinct beads that highlight the different periods of the decimal system. That approach reinforces the structure of tens, hundreds, thousands, and beyond.
The Flat Bead Frame, however, shifts the work in a quiet but powerful way. Its nine vertical columns of identical golden beads represent units through one hundred million. The categories are written across the top, and red zeros along the bottom show the multiplication patterns that come with each new place value. The golden beads signal something important: your child is ready to move from concrete color-coding toward pure numerical understanding.
Introducing the Material
When our teachers introduce this material, they begin by reviewing everything your child already knows as a foundation. It is both a continuation and a moment of assessment. Your child notices what is familiar and what is new: the vertical layout, the placement of numbers, the red zeros, and the uniform golden beads. The known supports the new. This careful transition is one of the qualities that make education in this school so effective.
Moving Toward Abstraction
The Flat Bead Frame is used to explore long multiplication and multiplication by powers of ten. When the multiplier involves tens, hundreds, or thousands, your child learns to shift the multiplicand to the left. The red zeros at the base make this idea visible. What can feel like a memorized rule in conventional public and private schools becomes something your child can see and feel. They understand why the number moves, not just that they are supposed to write an extra zero.
A Continuation of Pre-Kindergarten Foundations
This material builds on the work with the Golden Beads that your children experienced at younger ages, when they learned to exchange ten units for one ten, ten tens for one hundred, and so on. The Flat Bead Frame requires concentration, accuracy, and an understanding of the relationships between categories. These qualities from their preschool years help build the foundation for true mathematical abstraction.
The Mathematical Mind in Motion
Through this work, your children reinforce multiplication facts, internalize the commutative law, and become comfortable working with very large quantities. More importantly, they continue to see that mathematics follows a clear and consistent logic that they can and do understand. They gain the sense that numbers are not something to memorize for a test, but something they can work with, reason through, and take pride in mastering at a challenging pace that is right for them.
This is education that respects each human mind. At Wheaton Montessori School, we believe that the hand helps develop the intellect, and as your children move the golden beads across the frame, their understanding of place value deepens along with their confidence. Your children are not just learning math. They are learning how to think.
Come see how what begins as a physical exercise in moving beads becomes, over time, a quiet revelation and a process of mathematical thinking. This is Montessori math at its best!
You’re invited!
What: Open House
When: Thursday, January 15, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Explore our academic curriculum, from early childhood through the freshman year of high school, and connect with our expert teachers and school community. Tour our campus, natural playscape, and conservation areas.
Current families with children of all ages RSVP:
https://calendly.com/wheaton-montessori/open-house-2026
Prospective Families with children ages 4 ½ and under* RSVP:
https://calendly.com/wheaton-montessori/open-house-2026-prospective-families
*2026 Summer and Fall Openings
Openings are available only for new students under 4½ years of age and for current students to re-enroll. The waitlist for the
2025–2026 school year (kindergarten through freshman year of high school) is closed. Exceptions may be considered for students transferring from AMI-accredited Montessori schools with continuous attendance.
