Spindle Boxes: Counting 0 to 9

Direct aim. To count out the quantity a numeral asks for, 0 to 9, and to meet zero as the numeral for nothing.

Indirect aims, the ones you will not see at once

A long box with ten compartments marked 0 to 9, or two boxes, 0 to 4 and 5 to 9. The Montessori Room's long box is 53 by 18 by 7 cm.

45 spindles in a basket, because 0 + 1 + 2 and so on up to 9 makes 45. The Montessori Room lists them at 15 cm long.

Nine ribbons or small hair ties, so each group can be bundled before it goes in. Many albums use them; Montessori's books don't mention them.

Montessori's 1912 version was two trays of five compartments each, with a card at the back of every compartment, 0 to 4 and 5 to 9, and large wooden pegs shaped so they wouldn't roll off the desk.

1. 1Set the box on the table with 0 at the left, and the basket of spindles beside it.Silent Turn the box so it reads left to right.
2. 2Pass over 0 for now. Point to 1, say "one", take one spindle and lay it in the compartment.Say "One." Then one spindle, set down slowly.
3. 3Point to 2. Count two spindles into your other hand, "one, two", tie them with a ribbon, and lay them in.Say Count aloud, a spindle at a time: "one, two."
4. 4Go on to 9 the same way, counting every spindle aloud.Say Keep counting aloud; it's the counting the child copies.
5. 5When the basket is empty, point to 0. If the child asks what goes there, say "Nothing. Zero is nothing."Say "Nothing. Zero is nothing." Only if the question comes.
6. 6Count the spindles back into the basket, group by group, and invite the child to fill the box.Say "Now you."

The empty basket at the end, with not one spindle over.

Compartment 0 staying empty while all the others fill.

Tying a bundle: a handful of spindles held as one amount.

Montessori's game of "Come to me zero times", and the child working out that it means staying put.

The basket. There are 45 spindles and the box takes exactly 45. Spindles left over, or a compartment still waiting when the basket is empty, show a mistake somewhere.

Montessori’s name for this check is the control of error.

• Montessori's zero games: "Come to me zero times", "Throw me zero kisses"
• Her memory game: each child draws a folded numeral, keeps it secret, fetches that many objects and lays them out in columns of two; whoever draws zero takes nothing
• Cards and counters: numerals 1 to 10 in a row, counters laid beneath in pairs, which shows odd and even
• Filling the compartments out of order, 7 then 3 then 9
• The golden beads, the step into the decimal system

Variations

This work needs only the material, so it has no printable of its own. The shelf plan below places it among the other works for the same age.

Free to print for your family, no email needed. Print at 100%, not “fit to page”, so the drawings keep their scale. Every printable on the site is listed on the printables page.

Ready for the first presentation

Ready for the next lesson

Check the spindle ends on a new set and sand any splinter.

Keep spindles at the table. A 15 cm stick near a younger child's eyes is a risk.

We have not bought the paid homeschool curricula, so they are not listed here.

1. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method (1912)

   Chapter XIX, Teaching of Numeration

   Two trays each divided into five compartments, with a card bearing a figure at the back of each, 0 to 4 and 5 to 9; the child places the corresponding number of objects, chiefly large wooden pegs that will not roll.

   When the child has finished arranging the pegs he takes his tray to the directress so that she may verify his work.

   In the lesson on zero the teacher waits until the child, pointing to the zero compartment, asks what to put in it, and replies, Nothing; zero is nothing.

   Games such as come to me zero times, or throw me zero kisses, make the children feel what nothing means until they cry out that zero is nothing.

   Chapter XIX, Exercises for the Memory of Numbers

   In the memory game children draw folded figures, keep them secret, collect that number of objects and arrange them in columns of two, the odd piece at the bottom.

   The child who draws zero must stay in his place while his companions take objects, so the game is an exercise of will power more than of numeration.

2. Maria Montessori, Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook (1914)

   Arithmetic, Fig. 41

   The box in the material is divided into compartments, above each of which a figure is printed, and the child places in each compartment the corresponding number of pegs.

   Arithmetic

   In the box containing the pegs one compartment is marked 0, inside which nothing must be put, and then we begin with one.

Lesson text and the scope and sequence are CC BY 4.0: reuse them with credit to Owen Wren, Homeschool Montessori, and a link. Photos and illustrations are all rights reserved. The plates from Montessori's 1912 and 1914 books are public domain and not ours. Terms.