Wampum Bead Math

Thanksgiving week we studied the Pilgrims and the Native Americans who helped them. After reading "Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times" by Kate Waters, we launched into our pilgrim week math adventure: wampum beads and their values.

The original wampum beads were used as money by the Wampanoag. Theirs were made out of shells - we made ours with modeling clay. Three purple beads were worth 2 cents. Three white beads were worth 1 cent. Students made their own beads, figured their value, and then used them to create their own equations. This involved counting and grouping by threes -- some students used small numbers, but many got excited about creating beads and had to do more complicated addition. Many students quickly moved from operations in addition to multiplication. Some even started creating new values for different colored beads! Math is so fun!