Colored Bead Stair
Build the stair of colored bead bars 1–9, counting each bar and pairing it with its numeral.
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For parents
The colored bead stair gives each quantity from 1 to 9 its own color and length, turning numbers into things a child can see, count, and compare. Your child taps each bar into its row of the triangle-shaped stair — a bar in the wrong row visibly sticks out or falls short, so the material corrects itself. A second activity pairs numeral tiles 1–9 with the bars. These colors return in the teen board, snake game, and bead chains, so this early work lays groundwork for years of math.
Lessons for this material
- The Colored Bead Stair ages 4–6
Printable follow-up work
- Numeral Tracing — Dashed numerals 0–9 to pencil over, with golden beads to count at the end of each row.
- Math Facts Drill — Drill sheets for the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts — horizontal or stacked, with optional missing numbers.