Color Tablets

The Color Tablets are an introduction to the world of color. A child gets the chance to match 2 tablets of the same color to each other, building their visual discrimination skills while exploring how colors relate to one another.

Physically, the tablets are rectangular pieces with wooden ‘handles’ on the sides. Additionally, there are three separate boxes in the Color Tablet material. The first box contains 6 tablets, 2 of each of the three primary colors; red, yellow, and blue. The second box adds the secondary colors, green, orange, and purple, as well as pink, grey, black, brown, and white. The third box builds upon the first two even further, adding 7 different gradients of 9 colors, with a total of 63 tablets.

The color tablets introduce color without the association of a physical object. Take, for example, a red apple. If red is always associated with an apple, what might a child think when they see a green apple? Is it an apple if it’s not red? For this reason, in the Montessori classroom, colors are presented in a concrete fashion. The only thing that is different is the color itself. We call this, “isolating one difficulty” at a time.

What a joy it is to observe children diving into the world of colors!