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My daughter and I decided to make a DIY abacus this week. I love the hands-on aspect of using an abacus for math. It’s a great concrete tool for counting activities.
We used to have a store-bought one, actually we used to have two, but they have been lost to our purging and roadschooling. So, I thought we’d improvise with what we had laying around and see if we could make our own.
Lately, I’ve been looking into what’s going on developmentally as our kids learn to count. You can read more about that in my Counting and Cardinality post.
And, I’ve been trying to add more fun and concrete counting activities to our homeschool. One of the best parts of this project was that my daughter helped in the whole process. We were able to talk about what the abacus does and how we can use it to count.
The abacus may be an ancient invention, but it is still in use today and not just by children. Here is an article about the interesting history of the abacus.
Now, let’s look at making your own!
DIY Abacus
Materials:
- Wire cabinet shelf
- 10 drinking straws of a few different colors
- Scissors
Directions for assembly:
1. To assemble your abacus start by cutting your straws. Insert the scissors into each straw and make a cut along the entire length. The straws still hold their shape when cut, but now you have a way to place the pieces on the wire rack.
2. Next, cut the straws into sections. We originally just cut the straws into ten pieces of about equal size, but they ended up being too long. We didn’t have enough space on our rack to slide them, so we cut them down. I eyeballed this, but I would say about 1/2 an inch or smaller. Just try to make them about the same size.
3. Then, place the straw pieces on the rack. We put ten pieces on ten rows to make a hundred pieces on the abacus. This was the most time-consuming part of the process. But, my daughter and I did it together and it took maybe ten minutes. And, by putting her fingers on the pieces and having to count them as we placed ten on each row she was gaining a deeper understanding of how the abacus works. We made each row one color, but because the straws aren’t truly attached we will be able to move the colors around into different patterns whenever we like.
Our rack has twenty rows and little feet at each corner. So, it’s big enough for my daughter to place over her lap while she plays. And, because it can sit there, she doesn’t have to hold it with one hand while she manipulates it, like with the wooden kinds we’ve had before. We placed all of our straw pieces on one side of the rack and I may end up moving the pieces more towards the middle. But, my daughter has decided that that space is perfect for holding snacks while she plays;) So, maybe we’ll leave it alone.
So far we’ve been making patterns and just doing simple counting on our DIY abacus. But, I’m excited to start getting into some simple addition activities with it soon.
Have you ever made your own DIY abacus?
Heidi
