The Montessori Color Tablets: Explanation and Presentation

Learn about what the Montessori Color Tablets are and how to present them, including the extension activities.

This can be done in a classroom setting or in your home.

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What are the Montessori Color Tablets?

The Montessori color tablets are a traditional Montessori sensorial material and are a “fan favorite” in Montessori classrooms around the world.

This is likely due to their appealing colors and their potential as an item for open-ended exploration.

Above is box 1

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Above is box 2

Above is box 3

There are 3 Color Tablet boxes:

Box 1: 3 pairs of primary color tablets
Box 2: 11 pairs of primary and secondary colors tablets, plus black, grey, pink, and brown
Box 3: 9 sets of 7 tablets. Primary and secondary colors, plus grey, black, pink, and brown

The first 2 boxes are pairing activities and the third box is a grading activity.

Children are welcome to use their imaginations to create designs with the tablets following the presentation and activity.

These tablets can easily be made at home using hardware store paint samples, however.

The Montessori Color Tablets should not all be introduced in one lesson, or even in a single day.

Space the introduction of the boxes out so your child has the opportunity to work with each one until they are ready to move forward.

Show your child that the tablets should be handled by their edges
Place the tablets in random order on a table
Say, “I'm going to match these colors.”
Pick a red tablet and place it on the table in front of your child
Let your child see that you are looking intently for its match
Place the second red tablet next to the first one, to its right
Put the pair of red tablets at the top of the table
Follow these steps with the yellow and blue color tablets
Show your child the matched pairs, one by one, and tell her, “This is a pair because the colors are the same.”
Return the tablets to the center of the table in a random order and invite your child to try the activity

Place the tablets in random order on a table
Say, “I'm going to match these colors.”
Pick a red tablet and place it on the table in front of your child
Place the second red tablet next to the first one, to its right
Put the pair of red tablets at the top of the table
Follow these steps with the yellow and blue color tablets, forming a column
Proceed with pairing the remaining colors in the order purple, green, orange, brown, grey, pink, white, and black
Return the tablets to the center of the table in a random order and invite your child to try the activity

Place the Montessori Color Tablets on a mat, in random order
Tell your child that you are going to order the tablets
Find the darkest tablet in a given set and place it on the left side of the mat
Find the lightest tablet from that set and place it toward the right of the mat
Place the next lightest color tablet to the right of the darkest tablet and continue this until they are ordered from darkest to lightest
Repeat this process with each color set in the box
Show your child how each set goes from darkest to lightest
Return the tablets to the center of the table in a random order and invite your child to try the activity

Memory activities
Matching tablets to items in the room
Matching to nomenclature cards (3-part cards)
Grading colors by mixing white to lighten
Creating sunburst or reverse sunburst by placing color tablets in order from darkest to lightest (or lightest to darkest), starting at the center and moving outward

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