Small Skittles: Green, Blue, Red, (100)
Made by Nienhuis Montessori · shipped by Heutink International (Netherlands) About the maker
A hundred small skittles: fifty green, twenty five blue and twenty five red. The counts are not arbitrary. Green is the unit colour and units are what division consumes fastest, so twice as many are needed as of either other colour. Working with a hundred at once is also what makes long division on the board possible, since the skittles are the divisors and a big division needs a lot of them standing at the same time. Plastic, for ages 3 to 12.
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.'”
The Small Skittles set introduces mathematical thinking through tangible manipulation of 100 colorful pieces. Each green, blue, and red skittle serves as a concrete unit for understanding quantity, allowing children to physically experience numbers before abstracting them.
- One-to-one correspondence through counting individual skittles
- Classification skills by sorting colors into distinct groups
- Pattern recognition and creation using color sequences
- Understanding of quantities up to 100 through concrete manipulation
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The three distinct colors enable classification work, where children group skittles by shared attributes, building logical thinking foundations. These lightweight plastic pieces invite repeated handling as children create patterns, count quantities, and explore mathematical relationships through direct manipulation. The skittles' uniform size and shape eliminate distractions, focusing attention on number concepts and color attributes. When children arrange ten red skittles in a row or sort all blue pieces into a container, they internalize mathematical order through purposeful movement. The 100-piece quantity specifically allows exploration of the decimal system, as children can physically group skittles into tens and experience how ten groups of ten creates one hundred.
How to present it
Follow the Montessori method of presentation for optimal child development.
Place a tray with all 100 skittles mixed together on a mat. Set out three small bowls or containers for sorting.
- 1
Invite the child to sort the skittles by color into the three containers
Model picking up one skittle at a time using a pincer grasp - 2
Once sorted, count each color group separately, placing skittles in rows of ten
Touch each skittle as you count to reinforce one-to-one correspondence - 3
Create simple patterns using two colors (red-blue-red-blue)
Start with AB patterns before progressing to more complex sequences - 4
Introduce skip counting by arranging skittles in groups of 2, 5, or 10
Use only one color initially to maintain focus on quantity
Every Child Is a Little Creator
Heritage
Since 1929
In classrooms
Around the world
European brands
Nienhuis, GAM, Educo
AMI approved
To the association standard
Small Skittles: Green, Blue, Red, (100)
