Bead Strings
Rekenreks
What are Rekenreks?
Rekenreks are arithmetic racks, developed by Adrian Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland. There are two rods of 10 beads. Each rod has 5 beads of one colour followed by 5 of another colour. The order and colours on the top rod are repeated on the lower rod. The colours most often used are red and white. The starting position should show all the beads pushed to the far right. The student enters a number by sliding the beads to the left
in a one-push motion. It is important that everyone in the class is visualizing and communicating the patterns in the same way.
How do Rekenreks help students?
Rekenreks are used to help develop addition and subtraction strategies , such as doubling or finding near doubles as well as thinking in terms of 5s and 10s, instead of counting from one each time or counting on in addition and subtraction. Students improve their ability to regroup numbers when solving addition and subtraction problem
Rekenreks are arithmetic racks, developed by Adrian Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland. There are two rods of 10 beads. Each rod has 5 beads of one colour followed by 5 of another colour. The order and colours on the top rod are repeated on the lower rod. The colours most often used are red and white. The starting position should show all the beads pushed to the far right. The student enters a number by sliding the beads to the left
in a one-push motion. It is important that everyone in the class is visualizing and communicating the patterns in the same way.
How do Rekenreks help students?
Rekenreks are used to help develop addition and subtraction strategies , such as doubling or finding near doubles as well as thinking in terms of 5s and 10s, instead of counting from one each time or counting on in addition and subtraction. Students improve their ability to regroup numbers when solving addition and subtraction problem
