The multi-purpose root board has a grid of 30 x 30 holes. In addition to pulling roots, it is also used to determine products, decompose factors, etc.

Use, advantages, areas of application for this Montessori material:

• • Practice pulling roots

• • Form an understanding of the square root

• • Montessori material for children from 5 years

Scope of the Montessori teaching material:
1 root board, wood approx. 42 x 42 cm
1 wooden box with subdivision, approx. 19 x 19 x 5 cm
approx. 310 wooden studs, red approx. 1.5 x 0.8 cm
approx. 310 wooden studs, blue approx. 1.5 x 0.8 cm
approx. 310 wooden pins, green approx. 1.5 x 0.8 cm

Instructions for the large Montessori root board

The plugs for the root board are laid out ready. These have the following color coding:

green = ones
blue = tens
red = hundreds

Variant 1: (for small numbers up to 100)
A number is given, e.g. 64. The corresponding number of green plugs is counted. Then these are inserted in the square, starting from the upper left corner of the root board. This results in a square of 8 x 8 connectors at the end. The square root is therefore 8.

Variant 2: (without swapping)
A number is given, eg 484. The following plugs are provided according to the color coding:
4 x red (hundreds) 8 x blue (tens) 4 x green (ones)

Now start to form a square with the hundreds pins (4 x red) on the upper left edge of the root board. You may only use so many that you get the largest possible square. In the case of the 4, the hundreds go exactly, that is, a square of 2 x 2 plugs results.

Then a row is created with the ten pins (blue) below and to the right of the square, which only goes to the end of the square. So we have created 4 tens (2 below, 2 on the right). The free space is filled with a unit (green). Do the same with the remaining tens (blue) and fill the space with ones (green).

When all the plugs are used up, the result can be read on the sides of the square (right and below). In this example this results in 2 blue plugs and 2 green plugs, the result is 22.

Variant 3: (with swap)
The number of hundreds, tens or ones may not be enough to fill the rows or to form a square . Then the remaining ones have to be exchanged. The remaining hundreds are exchanged for tens (1 hundred = 10 tens), etc.