Stamp Game
All four operations with place-value tiles — the golden beads condensed into identical stamps, dynamic exchanging included.
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For parents
The stamp game is the classic bridge from the golden beads toward written arithmetic: quantity shrinks to identical tiles where only the color and printed number carry the value. Your child builds numbers to 9,999, then adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides them — trading ten stamps for one (and one for ten) exactly as with the beads. Because the tiles no longer look like their quantity, the child begins trusting symbols, which is precisely what pencil-and-paper arithmetic will ask of them next.
Make the real thing
- Place-Value Play Money — Paper bills in place-value colors — $1 green, $10 blue, $100 red — for exchange games that mirror the golden beads and stamps.30 bills (10 each of $1, $10, $100)
- Stamp Game Tiles — Sheets of 1-inch stamp tiles in place-value colors — cut a full stamp game from four pages.192 tiles (48 each of 1, 10, 100, and 1,000)
Lessons for this material
- Introduction to the Stamp Game ages 5–7
- Stamp Game Addition ages 5–8
- Stamp Game Subtraction ages 6–8
- Stamp Game Multiplication ages 6–8
- Stamp Game Division ages 6–8
Printable follow-up work
- Multi-Digit Operations — Vertical addition, subtraction, and multiplication — the pencil-and-paper follow-up to golden bead, stamp game, and bead frame work.
- Command Cards — Cut-out task-card decks for the golden beads, stamp game, hundred board, bead frames, fraction circles, and checkerboard — the child draws a card and works independently with the material; the key lets a parent check each card.