by Regan Becker

“The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

*Sensorial: Knobbed Cylinders — Multiple Blocks*

The Montessori Primary classroom contains four curricular areas: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, and Math. In this article, we focus on the Sensorial curriculum and materials.

Sensorial materials are the key to imagination. Dr. Montessori drew inspiration from her mentors in education in creating didactic hands-on materials for children to develop their senses. These concrete Sensorial materials are self-correcting, allowing children to build confidence and independence through use of manipulatives and problem-solving skills. The Montessori materials themselves provide feedback to the child through a control of error. This experience is often referred to as “auto-education”.

“The environment itself will teach the child, if every error he makes is manifest to him, without the intervention of a parent or teacher, who should remain a quiet observer of all that happens.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Sensorial materials ground the child by fine-tuning their visual, tactile, stereognostic (shape by holding), auditory, gustatory, olfactory, and geometric senses. The purpose of the Sensorial materials is to aid the child in refining pitch, temperature, weight, vision, sound, touch, and dimension. These materials are an integral part of the child’s holistic development. The isolation of difficulty in each material allows the child to concentrate on one aspect at a time without confusion.

Visual Sensorial materials include: the Pink Tower, the Knobbed Cylinders, the Brown Stair, the Color Tablets, and the Red Rods.
Tactile Sensorial materials include: the Rough and Smooth Boards, Fabric Boxes, Thermic Bottles, and Baric Tablets.
Auditory and Gustatory Sensorial materials include: the Sound Boxes and Smelling Jars.

“If one sense is isolated, it seems to be enhanced in its power of perception. The possibility of perception is more profound. It is the concentration of the conscious mind upon that sense.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Children use their senses to explore their environment, and these sensory experiences make impressions in their minds. Dr. Montessori noticed a sensitive period of order in children, starting at age three. The developing human mind naturally strives to discriminate similarities and differences resulting in young children sorting, arranging and classifying these sensory experiences — which then become a resource they use for both thinking and creating. Sensorial work serves the imagination and activates innovative problem-solving.

“The aim is an inner one, namely that the child train himself to observe; that he be led to make comparisons between objects, to form judgments, to reason and to decide; and it is in the indefinite repetition of this exercise of attention and of intelligence that a real development ensues.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Initially, the Sensorial exercises and materials provide children with opportunities to use each sense to distinguish contrasting perceptions. Later, after repeated practice and as they mature developmentally, the children learn to discriminate between increasingly fine variations in order to grade the objects in each set. Sensorial learning supports and develops exploration, observation, order, questioning, and hypothesizing: the markers of the Scientific Method!

Older students enjoy Visual Mixed Impressions Sensorial exercises for more complex problem-solving. These materials often bridge geometry and math curricula and include: the Constructive Triangle Boxes, the Binomial and Trinomial Cubes, Graded Figures, Knobless Cylinders, and (a very big work!) the Decanomial! Aside from the sophistication of these Sensorial materials, they are also very beautiful and inspire children to create by using their exponential imaginations. In this way, art is a natural part of the Montessori Sensorial curriculum.

*Sensorial: Constructive Triangle Boxes — Small Hexagon Box*

“The child needs to manipulate objects and to gain experience by touching and handling.”– Dr. Maria Montessori

Children are naturally curious about the world and desire to explore and investigate things around them. The Montessori Sensorial materials assist the Sensitive Period for Order by increasing nuanced language involving describing, comparing and sorting objects. In the natural world, the Montessori Sensorial exercises and materials lead to the child applying their discrimination and judgement to phenomena in the wider environment. The fine motor control involved in Sensorial works hones a child’s concentration, as well as their pincer grip for handwriting. Their beauty and orderliness appeal to the aesthetic needs of the child to engage with concepts such as measurement.

*Sensorial: Decanomial (aka The Table of Pythagoras)*

"The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

Sensorial!

by Regan Becker

Practical Life!