How To Use An Abacus To Teach Maths ?

The abacus meaning, also sometimes know as a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was predominantly use in Asia and Africa. The earlier versions were made using stones or beans that move in grooves on sand or tablets of wood, metal, or stone. Discover the meaning of the abacus and its practical use. Join abacus classes to learn how to efficiently use this ancient calculating tool.

The modern abacus is mostly construct in the form of a bamboo frame and has beads that have to be slid on wires. An abacus or a counting board consists of a wooden frame, rods, and beads. Each rod represents a different place value—ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on.

Each bead represents a number, usually 1 or 5, and how to use an abacus can be move along the rods. Addition and subtraction can easily perform by moving beads along the wires of the abacus.

What Is An Abacus?

The beads that slide along a series of wires or rods set in a frame to represent the decimal places. The standard abacus can use to perform addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. It can also be use to extract square-roots and cubic roots.
The beads are manipulate with either the index finger or the thumb of one hand. The abacus is typically construct of various types of hardwoods and comes in varying sizes.
The abacus frame has a series of vertical rods on which a number of wooden beads are allowe to slide freely. A horizontal beam separates the structure into two sections, known as the upper deck and the lower deck.
One could call it a precursor to the modern-day calculator. Merchants commonly use it in Europe and the Arabic world. Even today, in the modern world of computers and calculators, it is use by traders, merchants, etc. in many parts of the world.
It is still use to teach the basics of arithmetic to children. Download the PDF below to know more about Abacus Basics.

Introduction

As one can imagine, difficult it would be to count without numbers. There was a time when written numbers did not exist. The earliest counting device would have been the human fingers or toes.
But for greater or bigger numbers, people would depend upon natural resources available to them, such as pebbles, seashells, etc.
The abacus is the most ancient calculating device known. It has endure over time and is still in use in some countries.
The Abacus is a Latin word meaning sand tray. The term originate with the Arabic ‘abq’, which refers to dust or sand. In greek, this becomes ‘abax’ or ‘abakon’ meaning a tablet.
The abacus was use as a counting tool before the advent of the Arabic numeral system.
Merchants and traders need to maintain an inventory of the goods they bought and sold. When the Hindu-Arabic number system came into use, abaci ( plural of abacus) were adapt for place-value counting.

A brief history of Abacus

The first written information about the abacus that survive to the present, is from the Greek historian Herodotus (480-425 B.C.), who mention also, that the ancient Egyptians use an abacus.
The oldest abacus survive to the present day, is the so-call Salamis abacus. It is believe to have been found on Salamis, a Greek island, in 1899, hence the name. It was use by the Babylonians around 300 b.c.e.
Drawings of people using counting boards have been found dating back to the same time period.
There is evidence that people were using abacuses in ancient Rome (753 b.c.e.–476, c.e.). A few hand abacuses from that time have been discovered.
They have slots with beads in them that can be move back and forth in the slots similar to counters on a counting board. They resemble the Chinese and Japanese abacuses, suggesting that the use of the abacus spread to many parts of the world from Greece and Rome to China, Japan, and Russia.
The Chinese call it the Suanpan. Not much is known of its early use, but rules on to use it emerge in the thirteenth century.
The Japanese abacus is call the Soroban which was not use widely until the seventeenth century. The Soroban is still in use today. The Japanese have yearly examinations and competitions in computations on the Soroban.
The Russians call it the Schoty. Not much is known about how it came to be use in Russia.

Things You’ll Need

Abacus tool
Your eager-to-learn child!

It’s best if, in each row, the beads are divided by color into two groups of five as they are in the picture above. If not, the Melissa & Doug Classic Wooden Abacus, which you can purchase through the link below, works perfectly too.

Each abacus contains 100 beads and is appropriate for children ages three and up. Children love to play with the abacus because of its amazing color and texture. You can buy one at any toy store or online.

Abacus Basics

For many of us, Mathematics is the subject we love to hate. Having said that, calculations and numbers are part of our everyday lives.

Abacus learning makes the calculation process easy and interesting.

An abacus has beads that slide on rods.

The column on the far right is for ones (1,2, 3…)
The next column is for tens (10,20, 30…)
The next column is for 100s (100,200,300,) etc.

The most common abacus is split into two basic rows:

There are two beads in the top row, and five beads in the bottom one. The top row is worth 5 of the bottom rows.

Example

7 can be made using one bead on the top row, and 2 beads from the bottom row, because 5 + 2 = 7.

Abacus Counting

First, make sure each column in the top row has one or two beads per row and each column in the bottom row has four. While starting, all of the beads should be up in the top row, and down in the bottom row. The beads in the top row represent the number value 5 and each bead in the bottom row represents the number value 1.

Each column of beads represents a “place” value”. So, the farthest column on the right would be the “ones” place (1-9), the second farthest the “tens” place (10-99), the third farthest the hundreds (100-999), and so on.

To count a digit, push one bead to the “up” position. “One” would be abacus class represented by pushing a single bead from the bottom row in the farthest column on the right to the “up” position, “two” by pushing two, etc.

It is easier to use one’s thumb to move the beads in the top row, and the index finger to move the beads in the bottom row.

To learn more about Abacus Counting, check out Abacus Counting.

Abacus Adding

To add 1234 and 5678, enter 1234 on the by pushing up four beads in the one’s place, three in the tens place, two in the hundreds place, and one in the thousands place

The first numbers to add are the 1 and the 5 from the thousands place, moving the single bead from the top row of that column down to add the 5, and leaving the lower bead up for a total of 6. Likewise, to add 6 in the hundreds place, move the top bead in the hundreds place down and one bead from the bottom row up to get a total of 8.

Since adding the two numbers in the tens place will result in 10, you’ll carry over a 1 to the hundred places, making it a 9 in that column. Next, put all the beads down in the tens place, leaving it zero.

In the ones column, you’ll do essentially the same thing Meanwhile Eight plus 4 equals 12, so you’ll carry the one over to the tens place, making it 1. This leaves you with 2 in one’s place.

Subtracting

Here we reverse the process. Borrow digits from the previous column instead abacus class of carrying them over. If you are subtracting 867 from 932, enter 932 into the abacus, start subtracting column-by-column starting on your left.

Eight remove from nine is one, so a single bead is left up in the hundreds place.

In the tens place, you can’t subtract 6 from 3, so you’ll borrow the 1 in the hundreds place (leaving it zero) and subtract 6 from 13, making it 7 in the tens place (the upper bead up and two lower beads).

Do the same thing in the ones place, “borrowing” a bead from the tens place (making it 6) to subtract 7 from 12 instead of 2.

There should be a 5 in the one’s column:

Similarly, multiplications and divisions can done. All it requires is concentration and counting ability.

To learn more about subtraction on Abacus, check out Complete Guide: How to subtract two numbers using Abacus?

As mentioned earlier the thumb and the index fingers play a very prominent role in mastering the abacus. The abacus is used in many countries even today and an efficient method to achieve proficiency in arithmetic. With a Chinese abacus, the thumb and the abacus class index finger together with the middle finger are used to manipulate the beads.

With the Japanese version, only the index finger and thumb are used. The beads are moved up with the thumb and down with the index finger. The techniques remain more or less the same.

To learn more about Abacus Techniques, check out Abacus Techniques

Benefits Of Teaching The Abacus Method To Your Kid

Here are a few ways in which learning the abacus will help your kid:

It boosts your kid’s development, especially between the ages of 6 and 16.
Helps improve concentration, speed, and boosts creative abilities.
Improves the ability to calculate mentally and enhances accuracy.
Improves proficiency over basic mathematical concepts such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.

Counting And Basics With Abacus

Here are a few tips you can share with your kid about the basics of counting with an abacus: Make The Placements Correct:

Each column in the top row of an abacus will have either one or two beads and the one at the bottom will have four beads.

When your kid begins using the abacus, make sure that all the abacus class beads in the top column are place upwards and the ones in the column below are place downwards.

The beads in the top column represent the number five while each bead in the column below has a value of one.

how to use an abacus

2. Assign Place Values To Each Column:

Each column of the beads denotes a place value.

The column on the farthest right side is the ones place, the one next to it is the seconds abacus meaning class place, the next third and so on.

3. Start The Counting: To start counting, your kid will first have to push one of the beads to the upwards position.

The bottom row has only four beads, so to move from the number four to five,

To represent the number one, your kid will have to push only one bead abacus meaning from the row below in the farthest column on the right to an up position. To represent the number two, your kid will have to do the same thing but with two beads, and so on.

4. How To Make The Beads Read Five: abacus

In this position, the abacus meaning beads will read as the numeric five.

5. How To Make The Beads Read Six:

In a similar way, to count the number six, your kid will have to push one bead from the bottom row in an upward position. class a abacus At the same time, the bead in the top row will have to be in abacus. class downward position to represent the number five.

Together, with one and five, it will read as the numeric six.

Certain abacuses are design to aid multiple digit numerical abacus meaning operations like addition, subtraction, and multiplication. They can also handle fractions such as 1.5.

Here is you can teach the concept of addition and so subtraction to your abacus class kid with the help

Addition:

1. Start With The First Number:

So, if your kid wants to add, for instance, 1234 and 5678, here is you can teach the method.
Ask your kid to push four beads in the ones place to an abacus meaning upwards position, Similarly three beads in the tens place to an upwards position, two beads in the hundreds place to an upwards position, one bead in the thousands place in an upward what is the uses of abacus position and so on. Because if your kid is getting confuse, refer to the place concept explain above.

2. Start Addition From The Left Side:

The abacus uses the concept of moving from the left to the right side.

It means that the first number that you will add will be the one and the five from the thousands place. Your kid will move a single bead from the row above in the column above to a downwards position to add the five.

Now your kid can leave the bead at the bottom upwards to abacus class make a total of six.In a similar way, your kid will have to move the bead at the abacus is use top in the abacus meaning hundreds place in a downwards position. At the same time, your kid will have to move three more beads from the bottom part in an upwards position to create an eight in the hundreds place.

Subtraction:

1. Example of Subtracting 867 From 932:

Firstly To begin with, help your kid enter the number 932 in the abacus.

- - Secondly To get to that number, help your kid put the upper beads what is the uses of abacus in an upward abacus meaning class position. All the four lower beads in the hundreds column will also be in an upwards position.
  - But The three lower beads in the tens column will be in an upwards position.
  - - The two lower beads in the ones column will be in an class upwards position.
      - Once your kid gets the above bead positions correct. so, you can help to start the subtraction each column wise beginning from the left side.
      - During the first few trials, it may seem a little hard or different for your kid to meaning understand the basics and concepts of using the abacus. However, with a little patience and practice, your kid will soon be able to master the art of practicing numbers with the help of the same.

Moms, have your kids try using the abacus? If yes, do share some tips to help other moms teach their kids too.

Key Pointers

Most Importantly A rectangular wooden frame containing. Beads divide into top and bottom portions by horizontal bars is call. Using an abacus can improve your child’s development, how to use abacus concentration, ty to calculate mentally, and creative ability.
You can teach your child the concept of an through methods like match by the move and the counting game.
After that Ensure that all the beads in Because the top column. How to use an are facing up, and all the beads in the bottom column are facing down.

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