Mathematics, 6-9
The Checker Board is introduced in the elementary years, around age 6-7, after much practice with the Large Bead Frame. This material allows children to experience working with long multiplications without having necessarily memorized all multiplication facts.
In addition to the traditional Montessori Checker Board, Alison’s Montessori complete set includes Activity Cards. The Activity Cards are sectioned into 4 parts, which helps children progress naturally. The first set of cards offers practice building numbers on the checkboard. Other sets of cards slowly lead children to working on different multiplication cases: no carrying, carrying, 4-6 digit multiplicands, 3-4 digit multipliers, numbers ending in zeroes.
Check Board Beads 
Check Board Tiles
On the horizontal bottom edge of the Checker Board is the multiplicand representation. White tiles with color-coded numbers will be placed at their respective place values. On the vertical right side edge of the Checker Board is the multiplier representation. Grey tiles with color-coded numbers will be place at their respective place values.
Children will select color beads to place on the board, which serves as a giant calculator. Partial products are concretely represented, and are added together as a final product at the end of the exercise. This method provide children a deeper experience with place values. 1 red bead in the unit square is 1, while in the ten square is worth 10, and so on.
The Checker Board along with the Activity Cards afford children independence and advancement in learning long multiplications. Young learners can count all beads to find products, while more experienced learners can put into practice multiplication facts. Following the Checker Board multiplication work is Geometrical Multiplication and the Flat Bead Frame.
