Young children are constantly absorbing information about the world around them! Some of it is very concrete, while some is abstract. 

Colour as an Abstraction

Think about the colour red. Red as a quality does not exist in nature. Red can be represented in physical things, but you can’t bring “red” to another person. We can find a red apple, a red street sign, a red flower, but we can’t find just red. Red is an abstraction.

In Montessori environments, we are mindful of how we introduce young children to these kinds of abstractions. We try to represent the intangible quality in a physical form and to isolate it so that children can really focus on the quality and the language connected to that attribute. Every variable is held constant except for the one characteristic to experience and explore. We do this to give children the clearest, most precise images we can. 

These materials that we use to introduce the abstract concept of colour are called the colour tablets because each colour is represented on a tablet. The tablet with red looks exactly like every other tablet in our colour box, except for its colour. Each tablet has the same size, weight, and shape. The only variation is the colour. This materialized abstraction allows us to put “red” in the child’s hands to experience and explore. The Montessori colour tablets are organized into three boxes.

First Colour Tablet Box

The first colour tablet box is composed of three pairs of colour tablets: red, blue, and yellow. These primary colours represent the extremes of colour. With this first box we awaken children’s sensory awareness by introducing how to pair the matching colour tablets. There are two of each variable and children find the mates. Cognitively it is easier for children to notice sameness than difference.

In this first stage, we also demonstrate how to handle the material and how to experience the sense. If a child can’t distinguish the extremes of the set, we get important information about their sensorial perception. Sometimes the child isn’t successful at this first stage because they aren’t yet comprehending the concept of sameness. Thus we must be very careful to let children know how we are pairing the items by finding the matching the tablet that looks exactly like the one we have selected first. This isn’t just random pairing, but rather is based upon a specific perception. Often children don’t spend too long with this first box of colour tablets, although some young children will be drawn to the simple beauty of the three primary colours. 

Second Colour Tablet Box

With colour box two, the focus is still on finding similarities, however, there are more variables. For example, colour box two has primary colours and secondary colours, as well as brown, grey, black, and white. This adds more variables for children to search through to find the match and thus requires them to use a finer level of discrimination. When we add more variables, the differences between them become smaller and not as extreme. This challenges children’s exactness and precision.

Third Colour Tablet Box

The third box of colour tablets is divided into seven or eight compartments each with a gradation of one colour from dark to light. Children begin using this box when they have been successful pairing with more variables because grading by shade requires a higher level of discriminating difference. Children’s attention has to be focused on a slight unit of difference. Is the blue just lighter than the last shade of blue? This is cognitively much harder!

Just these three steps are not enough to ensure the maximum amount of depth of experience with the materials. Thus, we extend work with the colour boxes by offering language and memory games.

Language Extensions

After children have some experience with the material and we observe that they are successful in consistently pairing two colours together, we offer children language to accompany the abstraction. Language fixes the sensorial quality in their minds and aids memory and recall. We don’t want to give language to images that are not clear, because that confuses children. When children are successful pairing colours, we offer the names of the colours. Then when children are successful in grading the shades of a colour, we offer the comparative terms (darker than, lighter than) and superlative expressions (darkest red, lightest red). 

Memory Games

Memory games help children discover sensorial qualities in the world around them. In the first memory game, children put one set of the paired colour tablets in one location and the second set in random order somewhere else in the room. The trick is to have the second location be just far enough away so as to allow enough time for children to retain a memory of the colour. To play the game, children place a “memory marker” next to one of the colour tablets lined up in the first location. They then hold that colour, such as “red”, in mind and walk to the second location. There they find the red tablet and bring it back to place it by its mate. Children then move the memory marker to another colour tablet and continue. 

When children are successful with this, they can try a harder variation of this game in which they use a tray to place the second set of colour tablets in scattered locations around the room. When children go to find the matching colour tablet, they must retain the impression in their memory for a longer time and not be distracted by the other things they see as they walk around the room. 

Children can also play a game of matching each colour tablet to a material in the classroom. For this game, children use the memory marker to indicate which colour tablet they are using. They then study the colour tablet, leave it on the rug or table, and then search the environment for an object that has the same exact shade of the colour. When they find the object, they bring it back and place it next to the selected colour tablet.

Keys to the World

If we think about the world of colour, we realize there are an infinite number of colours, shades, etc. We don’t give children every colour of the world. We give the keys: the primary colours, then the secondary colours, then black and white, and a few other colours. Every other colour is made from those keys!

The colour tablets are one of the more lovely and inviting materials we use in the Children’s House or primary classrooms. Come visit our school and see how young children internalize these kinds of abstract concepts and, in the process, develop a refined sensorial ability!