Presentation Tray with the Golden Beads

What is the Presentation Tray?

The Presentation Tray is a wooden tray that contains one unit bead on the right, one ten-bead bar to its left, one hundred bead square to its left, and one thousand cube on the far right, as well as a piece of felt.

Presentation Tray

Presentation Tray

How is a three-period lesson with the Presentation Tray presented?

This is a wonderful and interactive introduction to the decimal system. The child learns the correct names of the beads. This activity is done by the directress doing a three-period lesson with the child. The directress places the piece of felt down so the beads don’t roll around.

First period: the directress introduces each bead one at a time to the child, telling him the name of each one and feeling it at the same time. She asks the child to repeat after her. Isolating each one by placing it to one side.

Second period: the directress spends a lot of time in this period by asking placing all of the beads in front of the child, asking him to feel and name each one. She may muddle them up and ask the child again.

Third period: She asks the child to feel and name each bead she calls out for, one by one, isolating each one by placing it to one side.

The directress consolidated the lesson if the child has grasped the concept.

What does the child learn by doing a three-period lesson with the Presentation Tray?

This activity helps the child’s memory, it is a wonderful introduction to the decimal system, it prepares the child for maths that he will be doing later on, it promotes his visual discrimination as well as it develops the child’s mathematical mind.

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.

Early Maths

Introduction to the Decimal System

The Short Bead Stair

Seguin Boards

The Hundred Board

Bead Chains

The Snake Game

Group Operations

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

Fractions