Large Hexagonal Box

What is the Large Hexagonal Box?

The Large Hexagonal Box is a large wooden box in the shape of a hexagon in the Sensorial area of a Montessori classroom. This box contains two red obtuse angle isosceles triangles, one yellow equilateral triangle, two grey obtuse angle isosceles triangles, and six yellow obtuse angle isosceles triangles.

The aim of this activity is to match the black lines of each triangle to form different shapes. The directress shows the child how to hold the box correctly with two hands and bring it to the floor mat.

She begins by unpacking each triangle one by one onto the floor mat. She shows the child how to trace along the black lines of the same colour triangles and then slide them together. She begins by tracing along the lines of the two red triangles with her right hand using her middle and index fingers to make a rhombus. She then creates a parallelogram by matching up the two grey triangles. The directress places the equilateral triangle in front of her and the child and joins the three yellow triangles with the black lines opposite the obtuse-angle. She places these three triangles accordingly around the equilateral triangle which forms a hexagon.

She moves on to show the child how each triangle folds onto the equilateral triangle. She repeats with the remaining two triangles until they are making an equilateral triangle. She unfolds the three triangles back to form the hexagon.

What skills does the child acquire by doing the Large Hexagonal Box?

The child learns that figures can be built with the obtuse angle triangles, this activity encourages the child to be very patient and to concentrate.

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