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You are here: Home / Favorite Toys/Games / Hundred Board: 10+ Fun Ways to Learn With This Montessori Resource!

Hundred Board: 10+ Fun Ways to Learn With This Montessori Resource!

By Betty
September 14, 2020

14 Sep
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10+ Ways to Learn with a Wooden Montessori Hundred Board

Although free math learning opportunities are present in regular every day life, I’m so happy that we bought a Montessori Wood Hundred Board.

The Hundred Board is among our favorite math resources, and I highly recommend it for preschoolers and elementary school students!

Tips for teaching math at home

This post is part of a series on teaching Math at home:

  • How I Taught My Daughter Basic Math For Free and Without Workbooks
  • How to Count in Chinese and English with Montessori Materials
  • 10+ Ways to Use a Wooden Hundred Board (This article)
  • 10+ Ways to Use a Free Printable Hundred Chart
  • Multiplication Chart and Pythagoras Board
  • Teach Kids Time with Hands-On Clock Activities
  • Interactive Calendar Learning Printables

This post may have some affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission which supports my blog and free printables at no additional cost to you. Please see the disclosure policy for details.

Why we love the Montessori Hundred Board

When it comes to learning, nothing beats hands-on experiences.  A strong math foundation begins with touching, feeling, and holding various items while observing, sorting, and evaluating their quantity, shape, and size.

Initially, I was not planning on buying a physical board since my daughter loves to use our free printable Hundred Chart.  But our wood Hundred Board has been a worthwhile investment. My two children we have used very frequently over the past 2 years!

In addition to strengthening fine motor skills, my kids have enjoyed color patterning as well as counting and skip counting practice!

Fun ways to use a Hundred Board

Where to buy the Hundred board

  • Etsy
  • Oskar’s Wooden Ark (Australia)
  • Noah’s Toys and Games (Singapore)

In my opinion, I prefer the Treasures from Jennifer board over the the traditional Montessori Hundred board. The round dimples make the board more versatile.

Available in beautifully finished, dark walnut or light maple wood, the board comes with colorful wool balls or wood balls.

At extra cost, you can buy number coins or alphabet coins for reading practice!  Treasures from Jennifer also accepts language customization requests!

10+ Ways to Learn with a Wooden Montessori Hundred Board

10+ ways to use the wooden Montessori Hundred Board

I’m excited to show you how my children have been using the Montessori Hundred Board for playful learning!

Please note that small objects used with this board should be placed out of reach from babies and toddlers who are mouthing objects due to the risk of choking.

1. Sort pompoms by color in a Hundred Board

An easy way to start using the board is to sort the wool pom poms by color!

Wood hundred board with pom poms

2. Count rocks, pom poms, and other small objects with a Hundred Board

We have had a lot of fun counting rocks and pom poms!  While placing one object in a dimple, you can practice counting out loud slowly and carefully with your child.

The engraved lines divide the board into 4 quadrants and also separate each row into groups of 5.  This will help a child “subitize” numbers, essentially the ability to eyeball a number of items quickly without counting each item individually.

Counting and sorting rocks with a Wooden Montessori Hundred Board

After we counted our colorful crystals, we sorted the colors by row into a rainbow!  As you can see, the benefits include strengthening fine motor skills, learning patterns, visual discrimination, and creating art!

3. Learn 1:1 correspondence with a Hundred Board

The little round dimples are perfect for teaching 1:1 correspondence.  We placed 1 rock next to number 1, 2 rocks next to number 2, 3 rocks next number 3, and so forth.

Tip: Teach the number symbol only after the child understands the concept of rational counting rather than rote counting.

Counting and sorting rocks with a Wooden Montessori Hundred BoardCounting and sorting rocks with a Wooden Montessori Hundred Board

4. Arrange the numbers chronologically in a Hundred Board

The number coins are a necessary add-on, and they are great for teaching number sequencing.

If your child has trouble finding the correct number, you can group the coins by 10s so the desired number is easier to find.

Arrange the numbers chronologically in a Hundred Board

5. Learn even and odd numbers with a Hundred Board

With the pom poms and number coins, you can demonstrate how even and odd number patterns.

Learn even and odd numbers with a Hundred Board

6. Learn how to skip count with a Hundred Board

Here’s an example of skip counting by 3s!  As a control, my daughter uses our printable Hundred Chart for reference to check her skip counting work independently.

Learn even and odd numbers with a Hundred Board

7. Hundred board: practice addition / subtraction with a dice game!

Dice games are a really fun way that we practice math!  Starting with an empty board, roll a dice, and add that quantity of balls.  Then roll again and add that many.  Continue until the board is full.

Alternatively, start with a full board, roll a dice, and subtract that quantity of balls.  Then roll again and add that many.  Continue until the board is empty.

Large wood dice for playing, learning, and math games

We love this large wood dice set, and we also like these blank DIY wood dice as shown in this Chinese wood radical characters activity!

8. Strengthen fine motor skills with play dough!

My daughter loves to mold different shapes with play dough, and she especially likes to pretend to make little mochi balls!  We have rolled so many together and are now experts in making them smooth and similar in size!

Strengthen fine motor skills with play dough!
9. Multiplication Board

Since Treasures from Jennifer accepts requests for customization, you can request the number coins for the Multiplication table! 

Before getting this versatile hundred board, I bought the red Montessori Pythogoras Multiplication Board.  In hindsight, I probably did not need both boards!

If you have limited space and budget, getting one board with different number coin sets is something to consider.

10. Build words with letters

We recently got English alphabet coins to practice building words!

Following the Montessori colors, red is for consonants and blue is for vowels.  Since my daughter tends to skip the vowel when she’s sounding out words to spell, the blue color is a helpful reminder for her.

Montessori letter colors spelling game
11.  Teach geographic coordinates

You can use the engraved lines to represent latitude (north-south) and longitude (east-west) coordinates of a map!

For example, you can put a pom pom at the coordinate that is 4 degrees west and 7 degrees south from the center.

12. Introduce graphing concepts

The engraved lines can also represent X and Y axis of a graph, and you can teach positive and negative numbers by designating the middle point as 0. 

For example, you can look for -5 on the X axis by moving 5 dimples to the left of the center.

What do you think of the hundred board?

Do you have other teaching ideas?  We would love to learn from you!  Please leave a comment or tag @chalkacademy on Instagram and Facebook!

More math activities and resources for kids

  • 5 Easy Fine Motor Math Activities with Hole-Punched Leaves!
  • More fun counting and math activities for children
  • Montessori Inspired Educational Toys and Homeschool Materials on Etsy
  • 数学帮帮忙 Chinese Math Story Books (Bilingual Simplified Chinese and English)

Happy playful learning, friends!

3 Comments

About Betty

I'm a Chinese-American mom who is having fun teaching my children Mandarin Chinese while re-learning the language myself. I love coming up with creative, hands-on, and educational activities, and I hope these ideas help your children have fun learning Chinese!

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Comments

  1. Lily Tang says

    June 4, 2020 at 8:56 am

    Great education toy/tool. Where can I purchase it?

    Reply
    • Betty says

      June 15, 2020 at 10:35 am

      Hi Lily! Shopping information is in the “Where to Buy” section of the post. Please re-read the post to find that section. Thank you!

      Reply
  2. Marisa says

    August 22, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    Hi Betty! This is a great post. Thank you! I see you bought the coins with pegs. Jennifer also has a no-peg version. I’d guess the no-peg version might be more versatile, as the coins lay flat…but I wonder if they slip/slide around the board (given there’s no peg)? Just curious about your child’s experience with the pegged coins. I’d love your thoughts! Thank you, Marisa

    Reply

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Dr. Betty Choi CHALK Academy - 2

Hi! I’m Betty, a Chinese-American mom, believer, pediatrician, and writer.  I’m having fun learning Chinese with my children, and I love sharing multilingual resources and teaching tips!  I hope these ideas can help your family or school! Read More…

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