The edx education Abacus features ten rows of two different coloured plastic beads that easily slide back and forth on metal rods. The sturdy plastic frame is designed to add desktop stability for easy student use, and may be used either standing up, or laying flat. An excellent teaching tool for building basic mathematic skills in counting, addition and subtraction.
The groupings of 5 red and 5 white beads, allow children to think in terms of groups of 5 and 10. It is more efficient using the 5 and 10 as anchors for counting, addition and subtraction, than counting by 1’s. The Abacus manipulative allows children to visualise number relationships, and to develop various strategies for addition and subtraction.
The Abacus is a very effective tool in understanding numbers and their relationships.