Division Board

What is the Division Board?

The Division Board is a wooden board that lives in the Math area of a Montessori classroom. The board has 81 holes that are arranged in 9 rows across and 9 rows down. There are numbers from 1 - 9 printed across the top of the board and down the left-hand side of the board.

What materials are required for this activity?

For this activity, we need nine green unit skittles, 81 green beads which are kept in a wooden box, a small green bowel, The Division Series 1, 2, and 3 sum cards, a whiteboard marker, and a cloth.

How is this activity presented?

This is the first activity that the division symbol is introduced to the child. The directress begins by showing the child the first sum on the series 1 sum card, and introducing the division and equals sign. She reads through the first operation with the child (2 divided by 2 =)

The directress places two skittles in the first and second holes at the top of the board. She then counts two beads into the green bowl and explains to the child that they will be sharing the beads between the two skittles. She emphasizes that division means to share equally.

Once the directress has shared out the beads, she explains to the child that the answer is what each of them received. The directress then asks the child to count the beads in the first column, the answer, therefore, is 1.

She records the answer and replaces the two beads and reads the next operation with the child (4 divided by 2=). The directress counts four beads into the green bowel and reminds him that they need to share the beads between the two skittles. She shows the child how to share out the beads and reminds him that the answer is what each of them received.

The directress records the answer and replaces the beads. She then allows the child to have a turn and shows him how to check the answers once all of the sums have been completed.

What the child learns by doing this activity

The child is introduced to the division sign in this activity, it shows the child different ways of doing division, as well as this activity gives the child a better understanding of division.

Looking for more Montessori activities?

Here is a list of all the Montessori Maths activities including Early Maths, Introduction to the Decimal System, Seguin Boards, The Hundred Board, The Short Bead Stair, Bead Chains, The Snake Game, Group Operations, The Large Number Rods, Recording with the Small Number Rods, The Short Bead Stair, The Strip Boards, The Boards, The Stamp Game, The Abacus, The Dot Game, and Fractions. Just click on the page you want to learn about to go there.