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RAFT Idea
Abacus Primer
The abacus is an ancient tool for doing calculations. This activity uses a simplified abacus to teach place value. Each bead represents 1 in the given place, and students can use it to get a visual understanding that 10 beads in a given place (1s, 10s, 100s) can be represented by a single bead in the place to its left (10s, 100s, 1000s).
Grades Covered: K through 3
Subjects Covered: Math, Social Studies
Curriculum topics:
- Math
- Place value
- Historical math tools
- Addition
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Abacus Primer Image Gallery