I love skill building activities that can be completed independently and I had hoped the Lacing Colour Sequence Beads would be one of these. I have used Magnetic Mightyminds and enjoyed watching my children progress through the learning puzzle board cards and achieve a feeling of success while working independently.
Fred, at the age of four, is the perfect age to try out this new set of Lacing Colour Sequence Beads from Quality Classrooms and tell us what he thinks.
The 96 brightly coloured beads are smooth and pleasant to hold but not slippy for little fingers. The 6 colours, red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple have 16 beads each. The 12 strings are short and the perfect length for the sequences on the work cards, large enough for the beads to fit but small enough to not result in lots of extra lace leftover.
The 18 double-sided work cards are colour coded and have 3 levels:
- Green (Level 1) contains 2 bead colours and 1 bead space to fill
- Yellow (Level 2) contains 3 bead colours and 1 bead space to fill
- Red (Level 3) contains 2-3 bead colours and 2 bead spaces to fill
I gave Fred a green card, a lace and we chatted about the sequence. We named the colours together and I explained the question mark meant there was something missing. We named the colours for the third time and both he heard and saw, the missing bead.
He began picking out the matching red and yellow beads with excitement. He organized them below the card first and then started to lace.
Initially, he did struggle to fit the lace into the bead. The beads have small holes, a perfect fit for the beads with little room for error. While this was a learning curve for Fred it did mean the beads did not just fall off the way they have with other beading sets we have tried.
The lace had a wonderfully long aglet (the stiff part of the lace which both keeps the twine from unravelling and also makes it easier to hold the lace and thread it through the bead) and this made lacing easier, once Fred worked out how to thread.
Two beads in, he had it and was pleased to quickly have made his first pattern.
Of course, when one child is exploring a new learning resource it attracts the attention of the others. Rose came in for a look:
I gave her a choice of cards and she got straight to work.
Her expression and the comment; “I love these games!” say it all.
The gradual increase in difficultly makes it easy for independent progression. This is a set I would use as a choice based activity at home and to teach patterning and sequencing at school.
The beads are perfect for number and counting activities too. Basic number bonds to 10 could be illustrated using a lace and two colours (eg. you have 2 red beads and add 4 blue beads, how many do you have altogether?).
