The Hundred Board

What is the Hundred Board?

The Hundred Board is a wooden board that is divided into 100 squares. There are 10 rows of ten squares each, and the number one is printed in the first square to indicate where the child should start.

A set of 100 number tiles are kept in a wooden box which are arranged in 10 compartments of 10 tiles each, for example, 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 and so on,

How is the Hundred Board presented?

The directress shows the child how to bring the Hundred Board to the floor mat carefully with two hands. She places the board in front of the child and introduces it to him.

She begins by asking the child to empty the first compartment of tiles (1- 10) onto the mat and to turn them over so the numbers can be seen. She tells the child that they are going to place the tiles in the correct sequence from 1-100 on the board.

She asks the child what number we start counting from, the child should then say ‘one’. She indicates the one on the board and helps the child find the number one tile and places it on the top left-hand side of the board. The directress then asks the child what number comes after one, he should say ‘two’ and locate the number two tile and place it next to number one on the board. The child continues in the same manner until he reaches ten.

The directress asks the child to empty the second compartment of tiles (11 - 20) onto the mat and turn them over like before so the numbers can be seen and repeat in the same manner as before. The child can continue until all of the compartments have been emptied and the board is complete. She then shows him how to pack the tiles away in their respective compartments, one by one.

What does the child learn by working with the Hundred Board?

This activity helps the child sequence numbers correctly from 1 - 100, it reinforces rote counting to 100, this activity shows the child numbers in groups of tens as well as, this prepares him for the Bead Chains.

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.