nextjilo.blogg.se - Making my own abacus beads from plastic

#Making my own abacus beads from plastic how to#

Take the bamboo skewers off the popsicle stick and put glue on the 8 pencil marks.

Use the pencil to mark where the bamboo skewer tips lie on the popsicle stick.

From now on, work on top of the scrap paper so glue won’t get on the table, counter or desk where you are working

Lay the tips of the 8 bamboo skewers evenly along one of the popsicle sticks, starting one-half inch in from each end on a piece of scrap paper.

You will have one extra that you don’t use.

Using the pruning shears, cut the bamboo skewers into three four-inch pieces.

Lay out 40 beads below them, in 8 rows of five, top to bottom, underneath the rows of 2.

Lay out 16 beads in 8 rows of 2, top to bottom on a piece of scrap paper.

We are going to make an abacus with a 2:5 pattern, the ancient Chinese style (suan pan)

Lay out the beads in the pattern they will be on the abacus.

Glue (Elmer’s works fine anything that will glue light wood to wood).

Make sure they will slip loosely on a bamboo skewer I had 15 of one color and 41 in 5 colors. If different, it helps to have 16 beads of one color for the top beads, then the same color beads for each row below. 56 beads (Pony beads from Michael’s or the beads in a party favor pack for making bracelets from the Dollar Store).If you and your grandchild both make one, you can have races to see who can solve problems first! This activity would take 10 minutes to assemble if you didn’t have to wait for the glue to dry. With summer upon us, you probably have all the materials at hand. If you understand simple addition and subtraction, you can use an abacus.

#Making my own abacus beads from plastic how to#

A Chinese abacus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Īlthough I studied Chinese in college and have been to China three times, most recently this summer, I had never learned how to use an abacus until researching this activity.