Montessori Dot Board Addition

You can purchase the Board, but you can also get the paper for free from many sources. We used the lessons from our Montessori Research and Development Manual - Mathematics V1. 

We did this exercise with markers and a printed board.

Dot Board Addition was a really interesting exercise in concentration for Xander. 

I demonstrated a problem, and wrote out a set of multiple addend addition

 problems for him to solve.  

In our manual we mark our dots with the corresponding colour to place value.  Once all of the dots are recorded in each column (10 squares wide) from right to left you start to mark your exchanges in pencil.     

This is a simple exercise, but there were many things that required a little more focus and attention for Xander like accuracy in recording dots (fine motor required to make the dots within the tiny grid squares) remembering to use the appropriate colour and recording exchanges.  

This exercise for Xander was not really about addition as much as it was about keeping track of many small details to solve the problem. 

  Xander recorded his answers in his math journal.  You can also laminate this board and use dry erase markers. We chose to just write on the paper.  Xander also recorded several answers on one page, and at the end we added up all of the dots for fun!! 

Xander did a "Dot Game Dance" when he finished 💕

This is a fun exercise, and he will continue on making up his own addition and multiplication problems.