DIY Elementary Iron Material – Part I

The Montessori elementary Iron Materials can be very expensive to purchase.  I searched everywhere to try find someone who could provide the files.  Eventually I asked Abbie from montessorischoolathome, and she carefully traced all the insets for me.  From these I’ve created these files using Autocad.

Now you can print them off and make them yourself.  Many homeschoolers just use simple cardboard.  But I wanted the kids to be able to trace them.  So I use framers board, which I get for free from my local framer. I purchased magnetic paper which I stuck behind the board to magnetize the boards.  This also allows for us to work with these on a baking tray or whiteboard and they will stay still.

The frames are made from framers board again, painted with magnetic paint.  Then the frame I cut from foam board.  Our little insets sit snug inside the foam board and it looks so neat.

I will document this process soon, so that you can see the photo’s as I’ve done each step.

In the next part, I’ll explain just how I made these.  But for now, I just wanted to offer the files, so that if anyone needed them, they could immediately go ahead.

Fraction square and triangles
Triangle insets

I have now a completed file of all the Iron Material.  I’ve only made the Fraction Squares and Triangles, as the rest of the work goes way after so much other geometry work, I’ll only need them much later.

Please download Dreambefore DIY Iron Material.

One thing you will notice is, as much as possible, that I’ve drawn the shapes along one cutting line, instead of as shown in the inset frame.  This I found helped with better cutting accuracy.

I really struggled with how to organise the insets, as I don’t have a lot of space and wanted it confined.  I found a perfect solution for us, was to use these simple drawers.