Montessori Activities - Sensorial Materials

Montessori Activities - Sensorial Materials

26th May 2018

Today we made our DIY light box and added the Kidpik Rainbow Sensory Blocks with transparent square tiles..

Little S. was so excited that he spent almost 20 mins playing with the blocks and square tiles.

He would remove the square tiles and then put them back on the coloured rainbow blocks.

The glow of the light table adds a whole new element. Toys looks different with light beneath them, colors are more vivid, and can be used to discover  details. It can be used to play and learn in so many new and different ways!

    

11th May 2018 - S. is now 14.5 months old .

This is the first time that we tried one of the knobbed cylinders.

It was heavy and we helped him to bring the knobbed cylinder to the mat.

We removed all the cylinders and S. tried to put them back.

    

14th May 2018 -   14.5 months old 

We started S. with 3 blocks of the Pink tower.  To get him accustomed to working on the mat and carrying the blocks with 2 hands one block at a time. 

Will increase the number of blocks one at a time once he is able to stack them .

         

What is Pink Tower ?

The Pink Tower was designed by Dr. Maria Montessori and it still remains unchanged throughout all the 100 years and is a must have materials in all Montessori classrooms.

Anyone would just look at the Pink Tower and say ‘it’s just a stack of blocks’.

Image result for pink tower

I have been asked so many times , so why pay so much for just a stack of blocks. Just buy blocks that cost just a fraction of the price and it can serve the same purpose. 

But only those who have worked with this material will know that it’s actually so much more than just blocks.

The Pink Tower is a scientifically designed material in the Sensorial Area of the classroom or environment. Dr. Montessori believed that working with the Sensorial materials enables the children to refine their senses, have a clearer understanding of what they are seeing, feeling, touching or smelling, and  helps with the development of intelligence. 

Importantly, the cubes in the Pink Tower are all the same colour, shape and texture. This helps the child to focus on one important quality of the material which is  size! 

The Pink Tower aims to refine a child's visual sense by discriminating differences in dimension. As a child starts taking each cube (starting from the smallest) to a mat, they can feel the weight and progression of its size. As they build the Tower, they refine their voluntary movement. The child learns self-control by doing the activity precisely and exactly.

When a child first attempts to build the Pink Tower, they may not be able to do it exactly right, they may not be able to control their movements yet. Through repetition and development of their hand-eye coordination, the child is able to make their hands move in a precise way. This is the key to self-control. When the child masters the skill, they master themself, by mastering their actions. 

Using their visual perception, the child  can self-assess whether they’ve built the Tower in order. This control of error helps the child realize what’s wrong and correct any mistakes. Through this, the child grows more independent and confident.

 

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