Adding Beads

The Adding Beads exercise introduces the basic addition table in a way that is engaging and fun. Children gain practice that commits the addition sums to memory and also illustrates the concept with graphic, interactive, visualization. The table on the home screen displays five rows and columns that each show a number to add. Above the table is shown a group of numbered beads that are to be inserted into the cells of the table. The object is to place the bead with the correct number into each table cell. Tapping on any individual cell also brings up a separate screen that performs a visualization exercise for that particular addition problem. In the visualization, the pupil creates a numbered chain of beads for each of the quantities to be added. The length of each bead chain is equal to the quantity. To complete the addition, the two chains are joined together, forming a single chain whose length is equal to the sum. Dragging the chain across the equal sign counts the beads one by one. The entire process interactively engages the learner in each step of the counting and addition.

The application contains two additional interactive visual games. In “Beads to Jars”, the player is presented with two numbers to add with a bead chain for each number. Below the numbers and bead chains is shown a row of graduated vertical tubular jars each with an individual length and quantity. The object is to connect the two bead chains together and place their resulting sum chain into the correct jar. In “Capture Beads”, the player performs addition by moving a numbered bead on a playing board in a sum-is-correct number of spaces to capture another bead.

At all times, the application’s user may bring up a view of detailed instructions by pressing and holding a finger on the screen for a second or longer. An “options” page also allows the user to select a difficulty level as well as an optional timer and scorekeeper for the exercise and game.