What are the Colour Tablets, and why three boxes?
Small rectangular wooden tablets, each about the size of a credit card, painted in a precise colour. The tablets are held in a compartmentalised wooden box that keeps them organised and makes returning them to their place part of the work.
Three boxes are used because they teach three different things, in order of increasing difficulty.
Box 1 isolates the primary colours. Six tablets, three pairs: two reds, two yellows, two blues. The child's task is to match the pairs. This is the first colour discrimination work, and it is usually the child's first encounter with the idea that the same colour can appear on two separate objects.
Box 2 extends the colour range. Twenty-two tablets, eleven pairs. The new colours are the secondaries (orange, green, purple) and a broader palette (black, white, grey, pink, brown). The matching work continues; the three-period lesson for colour names is introduced on this box.
Box 3 introduces shades within a single colour. Sixty-three tablets, nine colours with seven graduated shades each (darkest to palest). The child's task is to grade the seven shades of a colour into their correct order. This is visual discrimination at a finer level than Boxes 1 and 2 require.
Box 3 is significantly harder and is often introduced a year or more after Box 2 is being used independently. Some UK home families buy Boxes 1 and 2 as a combined set and add Box 3 later.
What is the direct aim?
Visual discrimination of colour, in three progressively harder forms.
Matching (Box 1) asks the child to notice that two tablets are the same colour. This is the simplest colour task; most children aged three can do it without difficulty after a presentation.
Naming (Box 2) asks the child to hold a colour name and a colour in their mind at the same time. This is vocabulary work combined with discrimination, and it depends on the three-period lesson to land.
Grading (Box 3) asks the child to notice that seven tablets of the same named colour are actually seven different shades and to order them. This is the finest-grained colour discrimination work in the sensorial curriculum. It is also deeply satisfying; Box 3 is a favourite of many older Montessori children for the quiet concentrated ordering it allows.
What is the indirect aim?
Colour as a vocabulary for the visual world. The Colour Tablets are the child's first rigorous encounter with the idea that the visible world is composed of named, discriminable colours in named shades.
This matters later for several specific areas. In art, the child who has graded seven shades of red has a basis for mixing paint shades deliberately rather than by accident. In geography, the contour and elevation maps used in Plane 2 rely on reading colour gradations (blues for water depths, greens through browns for land elevations). In biology, nomenclature cards often require colour distinction (species of bird, leaf, rock). In language, colour adjectives ("pale", "dark", "shaded", "bright") make intuitive sense to a child who has handled seven tablet shades under each name.
None of these connections need to be spelled out to the child. The indirect preparation works by having the child hold graded colour in their hands at three, which makes the colour concepts accessible in art class at nine without further teaching.
How is each box presented?
Short minimum-language presentations on a small work rug.
Box 1 (matching). Invite the child. Carry the box to the rug. Remove all six tablets and place them face-up in a jumbled arrangement on the rug. Pick up one red tablet; look at it; find its match; place the two together to one side. Repeat for yellow and blue. Return the tablets to the box. Invite the child.
Box 2 (matching and naming). Present the matching work first, as with Box 1 but across all eleven pairs. Present the naming in a separate session on a subsequent day using the three-period lesson. "This is red. This is yellow. This is blue." Then: "Show me the red. Show me the yellow." Then: "What is this colour?" The three-period lesson is presented over two or three sessions, not all in one.
Box 3 (grading). Invite. Take out all seven tablets of one colour; the box indicates which goes together. Place them jumbled on the rug. Take the darkest and place it at the top. Take the palest and place it at the bottom. Work from the outside in, placing each tablet in its correct position by holding it up and comparing to the ones placed. Present for one colour only. Let the child try the rest.
Each presentation is slow and minimum-language, ending with the child being invited to try. The adult then sits back.
Extensions and creative use
Matching with closed eyes for Boxes 1 and 2. For some neurodivergent children, closed-eye tactile matching works better than visual (the tablet edges and weight feel identical; the child identifies by what you are saying or by the feel of the matching tablet). Useful as an extension but not the main work.
Grading in pairs. Take two colours' worth of Box 3 tablets (say, red and green), jumble them and order each into its own sequence. Increases the discrimination load.
Colour hunt around the house. Child takes a tablet to the nearest kitchen drawer, finds an object of that colour, returns with it. Grounds the sensorial work in the real world.
Colour-and-name cards. Nomenclature cards with the colour names in print next to matching tablets. Early literacy overlap.
Mixing paint to match tablets. For older children (5+), using tempera or watercolour paint to mix a shade that matches a given Box 3 tablet. This is the sensorial-to-art bridge made explicit.
Common mistakes at home
Buying Box 3 before Box 2 is consolidated. Box 3 is hard; a child who cannot yet reliably match twenty-two tablets in Box 2 will struggle to grade seven shades of red. Work through Box 2 first, even if it takes a few months.
Keeping the tablets out as decoration. The Colour Tablets are striking on a shelf and parents often leave them out for aesthetic effect. This trains the child to see them as scenery rather than work. Present, use, put away; rotate if interest wanes.
Trying to make the tablets last forever. The tablets wear with handling (paint chips off corners, edges get scuffed). This is normal. Box 1 particularly is usually well-used within two years. Replace as needed; second-hand sets often come up cheaply.
Using plastic or card tablets. Plastic colour cards and printable versions exist. They miss the weight and feel of the wooden tablets, which is part of what makes the work satisfying. Wooden sets are not expensive; it is worth the small extra cost.
A real family's three-box journey
A mum we will call Hana bought Boxes 1 and 2 as a single set for £25 when her daughter was three. Box 1 was presented immediately; within a fortnight her daughter was matching all three pairs independently and asking for more. Box 2 was introduced two weeks later; the matching work took a term to consolidate because the eleven-pair set was a bigger visual load.
The three-period lesson for colour names was spread across a school-holiday fortnight in which Hana presented one or two colour names a day, beginning with red, yellow, blue and then extending. By the end of the fortnight her daughter could name all eleven colours reliably.
Box 3 was bought second-hand for £30 when her daughter was four and a half, about eighteen months after Boxes 1 and 2. Her daughter's favourite was greens; she graded the seven shades of green once a day for a fortnight before moving on to the other colours. By five she had graded all nine colours and had moved on to using the tablets for a colour-matching project in the garden (leaves matched to shade).
Total across two years: £55. The tablets are now in a cupboard; Hana's younger child has started on Box 1.
Frequently asked.
- What are the three boxes exactly?
- Box 1: six tablets, three pairs of primary colours (red, yellow, blue). Box 2: twenty-two tablets, eleven pairs covering primaries, secondaries (orange, green, purple), plus black, white, grey, pink and brown. Box 3: sixty-three tablets, nine colours with seven graduated shades each from darkest to lightest.
- What age?
- Box 1: around three. Box 2: around three and a half. Box 3: around four or five. Children usually work the boxes in order over about two years.
- Do I have to buy all three?
- Boxes 1 and 2 are usually sold together as a single unit (£15-30). Box 3 is a larger set and sold separately (£25-40). Most UK home families start with 1 and 2, add Box 3 when the child is ready for the grading work.
- What does Box 3 actually teach?
- Visual discrimination of shades within a single colour. The child learns that between 'dark red' and 'pale red' there are five intermediate shades, and they can order them by hand. This is sensorial preparation for the later work in art (mixing colour shades) and in geography (reading contour and elevation maps).
- Can I DIY Colour Tablets?
- For Boxes 1 and 2, with difficulty; the pairs have to be exact matches, which paint-home mixing rarely achieves. For Box 3, not really; the shades have to be precisely graded and repeatable across the seven-step sequence. Buy the commercial sets.