Torrance loves learning to add and subtract. She was having trouble using her fingers for larger equations and at home we could use beads, candy, rocks, and other items to count out for her addition and subtraction homework. I wanted her to be able to use some of these items at school when she was doing her math there. However, handing a baggy of beads to a Kindergartener has trouble written all over it. The solution: a small abacus made from popsicle sticks, dowels, and beads. It is small enough to fit in Torrance’s backpack and desk at school, but large enough to handle the difficulties of Kindergarten addition and subtraction. An abacus like this one can also be used for older children who are doing higher level math, and even used for multiplication and division. It can be made with more dowels and beads if necessary and customized to the child’s liking. Tor loves purple and picked out the star beads.
To make the abacus you will need 14 popsicle sticks, 6 small dowel rods, beads of your choice (make sure the dowel rods are small enough to fit the beads), paint of your choice, hot glue gun, and a sharpie or paint pen.
Step 1) Paint 6 popsicle sticks.
Step 2) Glue together 3 popsicles with a painted one on top of the stack. Make 4 stacks of three popsicle sticks.
Step 3) Thread the beads onto the dowel rods.
Step 4) Turn two of the popsicle stick stacks upside down and measure 1 inch rows, drawing guidelines onto the popsicle sticks.
Step 5) Glue the dowel rods with beads on them to the upside down stacks of popsicle sticks on either end. Make sure the dowel rods are glued to your guidelines so that they will remain equal distance apart.
Step 6) Glue the remaining two stacks of popsicle sticks to the top of the dowel rods. Glue the remaining two popsicle sticks to either end of the abacus.
Step 7) Write your child’s name on one of the popsicle sticks.
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