During their elementary years, students are introduced to some pretty big concepts. In a Montessori classroom, concrete objects often pave the way for abstract concepts. One such abstract concept we teach in the 6-9 classroom is infinity.
The concept of infinity is so abstract, many adults have trouble wrapping their heads around it. So how can we approach such a challenging concept with children? Lower Elementary teachers help children advance toward the concept of infinity by way of a concrete lesson called Infinity Street.
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The view along Infinity Street
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Though not strictly a Montessori lesson, Infinity Street was developed by Montessori teachers and uses many of the same color concepts and materials that can be found on the Montessori math shelves. Infinity Street has two main goals: to help students understand how to read large numbers, and to introduce the concept of infinity.
Reading and writing very large numbers is inherently fascinating to children. They take pride in being able to string together a group of numbers and create meaning out of that number by giving it a name.
The Infinity Street story begins with a felt or paper house. This house is on Infinity Street and contains three family members, a Unit (the smallest family member), a Ten and a Hundred. Each member of the Simple family, as they're known, is represented by a different color (red, blue and green). The students assign each family member a single numeral from one to nine and read their names all together, as the Simple family prefers. For example, if Hundred is assigned the number three, Ten assigned nine and Unit assigned four, their names are read as "three hundred ninety-four."
The Simple family's next-door neighbors, the Thousands, live in a slightly larger house and their three slightly larger family members have the same names (Unit, Ten, Hundred). Their house has a little mailbox on the right with their family name and a comma, which introduces students to the use of a comma to break up large numbers. The Thousands and their neighbors to the right like when you say their names all together, such as "two hundred thirty-six thousand, three hundred ninety-four."
Next comes the Millions family, Billions family, Trillions family, and so on, with each house and family getting slightly bigger than the previous one.
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Room 19 students create numbers
on Infinity Street.
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Infinity Street can be as long or short as the teacher or students desire. In Room 19, we created numbers in the duodecillions (10^39)! Ask your Lower Elementary child to read a number this long aloud for you - you will be impressed!
Even when we placed the final house on Infinity Street in Room 19, the students learned that Infinity Street actually goes on forever and ever, without end.
By way of the concrete Infinity Street, the children can begin to imagine more and more houses, and how big they would get if they went on forever. They begin to imagine the abstract concept that is infinity.