Hundred Museum - Student-Centered Math

Students in Grade 1 at Qingdao Amerasia International School have been exploring what 100 is – what it looks like, and how it is made. They recently read a book, From One to One Hundred, that showed groups of objects corresponding to numbers between one and one hundred.

To deepen their understanding, students created a ‘Hundred Museum’ in the Grade 1 classroom! They each brought in 100 of their own objects – beans, beads, bottle caps, blocks, and many more small, countable objects – to show what that quantity looks like. Some students mixed and matched their objects, for example showing that 20 bottle caps plus 30 blocks plus 50 cars equals 100. Each student also created a book, drawing groups of objects that add up to 100.

This activity is an example of how students deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts in a student-centered environment. By counting physical objects, the concept of 100 is confirmed by the senses of sight and touch. By bringing examples from home, students see how this quantity is relevant in their own day-to-day life – whether by counting out a number of blocks, waiting to collect a quantity of bottle caps, or rounding up beans in the kitchen. This assignment also engages students’ multiple intelligences, by connecting reading, writing, and illustration in a ‘Math’ exercise.

Early Childhood and Grade 1 at QAIS are unique in combining the student-centered approaches of Montessori and the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. For more information about how QAIS inspires a lifelong love of learning, come and visit our campus in Qingdao!