Montessori Sunday: Spindle Boxes

It's been so long since I did a post on a specific Montessori Material that I had to go back and check what I haven't already posted about. So today's post is going to be about the Spindle Boxes because A) I haven't done them before and B) because I just recently showed them to a child in my class.

The spindle boxes are one of the earliest math materials children are exposed to in the classroom and are supposed to convey the idea that numbers mean a specific quantity of something. They are shown after the child has had practice counting the number rods (which are units that are bound together so that 5 is always 5 and you can't accidentally drop any parts to make is 4) and is comfortable identifying written numbers. The material is made up of a shallow box divided into 10 separate compartments. The numbers 0 to 9 are written in the space above each compartment. There is also a container with exactly 45 spindles in it.

The adult double checks that the child is familiar with the printed numbers and then begins demonstrating how to count out the desired number of spindles, beginning with 1. Each time the spindles are counted into the hand first and when the correct number is reached then the spindles are counted again in to the correct compartment. 

When the compartment for 9 is filled all the spindles will have been used, creating a built in control of error for the child. If they haven't counted correctly their will either not have enough spindles for the last box, or there may be some extras left over. 

Once all the spindles have been counted the teacher introduces the 0 compartment. "This is zero, zero is nothing so we don't put any spindles in here." The teacher then demonstrates how to bind the groups of spindles together and place them back in their compartments. This binding is done to show that the number is the whole quantity grouped together.

That's it. A fairly straightforward activity that introduces the child to the idea of 0, careful counting of objects, and double checking of work (by counting the spindles twice). I really miss the spindles from my training class, they were like old fashioned sewing spindles, smaller and smoother than the current type and just felt so much nicer in the hand. They were also smaller, I found that when showing my classroom set to C that he had trouble grasping the spindles in one hand as soon at the quantity was any higher than 7. This makes binding the spindles together even more difficult; how are you suppose to bind something that you can't even hold in one hand, what hand do you have to use then? So I'm currently brainstorming ideas on how to complete this part of the lesson. I'll let you know how that turns out.