Golden Yellow Wax Plates, Set of 5: Gold for the First Letters
The Golden Yellow Wax Plates in a set of 5 are flexible wax plates measuring 20 × 10 cm in a warm golden yellow, which You can use to refill wax tablets or equip self-made tablets for the first time. The paraffin-based wax mixture remains supple with the warmth of the hand, does not splinter when cut to size and is therefore suitable for craft activities with whole groups. One plate fills one writing surface.
Flexible, golden yellow, craft-ready: the uncomplicated entry into the wax tablet
How Roman children learned their first letters
The first letter in Rome was not a matter of freedom. Roman children learned from a model, the praescriptum. The teacher or an older pupil incised the letters in advance, and the child traced them, stroke by stroke, line by line. Often another hand lay over the child’s own and guided the stylus through the forms until the movement was mastered.
The wax tablet was made for this method. Whatever went wrong disappeared with the flat end of the stylus, and the model could be incised again as often as needed. No material of antiquity forgave beginners’ mistakes so patiently. Preserved writing exercises still show this today: alphabets in an uncertain hand, repeated lines, model verses that a pupil copied several times one below the other.
Roman educators thought surprisingly modernly about this. They looked for ways for children to grasp the shape of letters first with the hand before writing freely, and they relied on play, tracing and repetition rather than mere memorisation. Anyone who does movement exercises or has children trace letters with a class today is working according to a principle that was already part of everyday school life in Rome.
That is exactly what the golden yellow plates are intended for: for getting started, for large groups, for the very first letters on a tablet that the children have filled themselves.
Golden yellow, flexible, suitable for groups: the wax plates in detail
The plates are based on a wax mixture of paraffin and microcrystalline wax. This combination makes them elastic: at room and hand temperature, they can be bent, cut with scissors or a knife and shaped without corners breaking off. The warm golden yellow comes from lightfast pigments and remains stable even in a sunny classroom.
To insert the plate, cut it to fit the recess, warm it briefly between the palms of Your hands and press it evenly into the tablet with Your fingers. You do not need any tools for this; fingers protect the surface. One layer is enough, and each plate creates one writing surface, both in the 14 × 9 cm format and in 19 × 11 cm tablets. With one set of 5, You fill five single tablets or two double tablets plus one single tablet.
The stylus draws a fine groove into the golden yellow, which stands out clearly through light and shadow. With firmer pressure, the wood beneath appears in places. When erasing, note: because the mixture is not pure beeswax, smoothing with the flat end of the stylus takes a few more strokes. For deep scratches, there is a trick, only under adult supervision: briefly warm the flat end of a metal stylus over a candle flame, hold it by the cold end and draw it across the surface. The wax softens at the surface and can be levelled again. Keep the tablet and plates at a distance from the flame.
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Contents: 5 wax plates per packaging unit
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Dimensions: each 20 × 10 cm, thickness 0.5 mm
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Material: paraffin-based wax mixture with microcrystalline wax, not pure beeswax
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Colour: golden yellow, lightfast pigments
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Processing: cut to size, warm in the hand, press down with the fingers, one layer is enough
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Yield: 1 plate per writing surface, suitable for tablets 14 × 9 cm and 19 × 11 cm
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Use: craft activities with groups, first filling of self-made tablets, refilling worn wax tablets
From craft project to first word: the golden yellow plates in lessons
On a project day with the whole class, one thing matters above all: the material has to cooperate. Thirty children cut to size at the same time, warm the plates, press them in, and nothing breaks, nothing splinters, nobody needs a hotplate. After just a few minutes, every child holds their own self-filled wax tablet. This moment carries the motivation for the rest of the lesson.
Then follows the Roman path to the first letter. The teacher incises a model into the golden yellow surface, the praescriptum, and the children trace the forms. Those who wish can work in pairs: one child guides, the other writes, then they swap. In this way, pupils experience Roman teaching with their hands instead of merely reading about it. For younger children, tracing is also suitable as a movement exercise, entirely without knowledge of Latin. One rule belongs right at the start: every stroke is drawn from top to bottom, as Roman scribes did on wax.
In museum education and holiday programmes, where every group is meant to take its tablet home, the plates are a predictable solution: have them cut to size, distribute them, done. One set of 5 per five children makes it easy to calculate the material needed for any group size.
Store leftover plates flat and cool, preferably in the box and away from sun and heating. This keeps them supple until the next project day.
Golden yellow, old red or beeswax? A small decision guide
Project days, holiday programmes and craft activities with whole classes are the field of use for these plates. Flexible, break-resistant and workable without a heat source, they can be reliably used by many hands at the same time. One plate per child, one set per five children: this makes the required quantity easy to calculate.
Especially when starting to write, the bright golden yellow surface pays off. Pre-incised letters for tracing stand out well, and the children immediately see whether their stroke follows the model.
In a class set, golden yellow can be combined with other colours. The Old Red wax plates create a coloured accent, while the black wax plates Tabula Noctis provide the classic light-dark contrast of the most common Roman tablet.
For tablets that are written on and erased daily over many years, the natural beeswax plates made of pure beeswax are the more suitable choice. They are easier to smooth and are intended for long-term use, while golden yellow shows its strengths when building and trying things out.
Quintilian’s grooves for the stylus
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, rhetoric teacher in Rome and author of the most comprehensive ancient work on education, thought about how children best learn to write. His suggestion for the first phase:
„Cum vero iam ductus sequi coeperit, non inutile erit eas tabellae quam optime insculpi, ut per illos velut sulcos ducatur stilus.“
“As soon as the child has begun to follow the lines, it will be useful to have the letters cut as carefully as possible into a tablet, so that the stylus is guided through them as if through furrows.”
Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria I, 1, 27, around 95 AD
Quintilian justifies this very practically: on the wax tablet, a beginner’s stylus can easily slip; in the grooves, however, it stays on track. And the teacher no longer has to guide the child’s hand with his own; the tablet takes over.
With the golden yellow plates, Quintilian’s idea can be recreated in the classroom. The teacher incises the letters a little deeper, the children trace the grooves, and afterwards the surface is smoothed and free writing begins. First the path in the groove, then the child’s own stroke: Roman writing didactics that still works today.
Briefly asked: golden yellow wax plates in practice
Why do You always write on wax from top to bottom?
Because the wax demands it. If You pull the stylus upward, the tip pushes the material in front of it, the wax builds up, the line frays and the stylus jumps. Downward, by contrast, the tip cuts cleanly through the layer, and the line remains clear. Roman scribes therefore drew every stroke from top to bottom: vertical stems, diagonals and also the curves of C, G, O and Q, which are formed as two downward curves. When comparing the letter forms on preserved wax tablets, this stroke direction is clearly visible. Try it with Your class: one stroke upward, one downward, and everyone immediately feels the difference.
How much material do I need for a whole class?
One plate creates one writing surface, so one set of 5 is enough for five single tablets. For 30 children with one single tablet each, plan for six sets. For double tablets, the required quantity doubles accordingly.
Do the children need tools to insert the plates?
Only scissors for cutting to size. The plate is warmed briefly between the palms of the hands and then pressed into the recess with the fingers. It is better to leave spatulas or styli aside during this step, as they would scratch the fresh surface.
How do I prepare letters for tracing?
Incise the letters into the surface a little deeper than usual with the stylus, every stroke from top to bottom. The children then trace the grooves, just as Quintilian recommended for beginners. Afterwards, the surface is smoothed, and free writing begins.
How do the golden yellow plates differ from the natural beeswax plates?
In material and therefore in intended use. The golden yellow plates consist of a flexible paraffin-based wax mixture, are break-resistant and ideal for craft activities and the first steps in writing. The natural beeswax plates are made of pure beeswax, are easier to smooth and are suitable for tablets that are written on daily over a long period.
Ivory Letters for Playing
Educational toys with letters are not an invention of our time. Around 402 AD, the Church Father Jerome advises in a letter to Laeta that her little daughter Paula be given letters made of boxwood or ivory to play with, each named by its letter name. A clever addition: the letters should be mixed up again and again so that the child recognises them by their shape and does not merely recite the order of the alphabet. And for good spelling, there were small rewards.
Quintilian, around three hundred years earlier, had already recommended ivory letters to make children enjoy learning. First grasp, then incise: from play letters came grooves in the tablet, from grooves the child’s own stroke in the wax.
Source: Jerome, Epistula 107, 4, around 402 AD; Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria I, 1, 26
Bibliography
Title: Institutio Oratoria (The Education of the Orator)
Author: Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus)
Publication: edited and translated by Helmut Rahn, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt
Date: 1988 (original work around 95 AD)
Title: Selected Letters (Epistula 107 to Laeta)
Author: Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus)
Publication: translated by Ludwig Schade, Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, Kösel & Pustet, Munich
Date: 1936–1937 (original letter around 402 AD)
Title: Ad Laetam de institutione filiae (epist. 107). Introduction, text, translation and commentary
Author: Gerolamo (Jerome)
Publication: De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston
Date: 2025
Title: History of Education in Classical Antiquity
Author: Henri-Irénée Marrou
Publication: Karl Alber, Freiburg
Date: 1957
Further Links
Updated on: 14/10/2026
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