The aim of Montessori Knobless Cylinders is to refine a child's visual discrimination, based on diameter and height. It is a sensorial material that consists of four boxes of ten coloured cylinders (red, yellow, blue, and green). Each coloured set is different:
Yellow coloured cylinders: decrease in height, as well as in diameter.
Red…
The presentation with knobbed cylinders is one of the first sensorial activities in a Montessori classroom. The apparatus was designed by Maria Montessori herself, and consist of wooden cylinders of varying diameter and height, all of which must be inserted into the correct socket in an accompanying wooden pallet.
Through their work with these cylinders, children’s…
The Brown Stair (also called the Broad Stair) is a series of ten graduated, wooden prisms all the same length but different heights. As a grading activity that helps visual acuity, the Brown Stair is important in early mathematics and sensory training, encouraging an understanding of size and spatial awareness. As with most Montessori apparatuses,…
In Montessori classrooms, we introduce geometric shapes to young children using the Triangular Box. Whilst the activity does form the foundation for exploring more complex geometric concepts, it is part of the sensorial curriculum as it focuses on refining the child's senses and developing their understanding of the physical world.
The Triangular Box consists of a…
The pink tower was designed by Maria Montessori herself and is a favourite in Montessori classrooms. It consists of 10 wooden cubes, ranging in size from 1 cubic centimetre to 10 cubic centimetres. The cubes are the same colour, texture and shape so that children are able to focus on one important quality of the…
The initial colour mixing lesson can be presented to one child or a group, after which the materials can be made available for children to use on their own. If you’d like to try it at home, here’s what you’ll need:
tray
eye droppers
3 clear jars (containing food colouring – red, yellow,…
We want children to create—to use their imaginations and to love texture, colour, shapes, and to experiment with the materials at their disposal. Our hope is that they will love art and be inspired to draw and paint, stick and cut, sculpt and get messy…and then clean up afterwards, of course.
Montessori inspires freedom through organisation,…
In Native American culture, Haida sticks are thin playing sticks that were often decorated with traditional markings or engravings. Haida art has been linked specifically to indigenous people living along the north west coast of Alaska; the sticks are thought to have been used much like the pick-up-sticks game played today. In a lesson about…
Matching games are traditionally found in the Language section of a Montessori classroom but because the exercise has a sensorial application (as children will be visually discriminating against different snowflakes – in this case), it could also be categorised as part of the Sensorial curriculum, as My Works Montessori has done in the below video:
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One way to explore art with your children at home is to teach them the difference between a portrait, a landscape and a still life. In a Montessori classroom, we would do this by stating the definition of each concept and then have examples of art works that fit into each category as a way…