Montessori sensorial materials

Use of these materials constitutes the next level of difficulty after those of practical life.

This is done to help promote independence and problem solving on the part of the child.

The cylinder blocks are ten wooden cylinders of various dimensions that can be removed from a fitted container block using a knobbed handle.

To remove the cylinders, the child tends to naturally use the same three-finger grip used to hold pencils.

The main activity involves removing the cylinders from the block and replacing them again in the spot that one got them from.

The control of error is constituted in the child's inability to replace a cylinder in the wrong hole.

The work is designed to provide the child with a concept of "big" and "small."

The child sees the cubes are in the wrong order and knows that they should fix them.

It comprises ten sets of wooden prisms with a natural or brown stain finish.

As an extension, the broad stairs are often used with the pink tower to allow the child to make many designs.

By holding the ends of the rods with two hands, the material is designed to give the child a sense of long and short.

There are 4 boxes of cylinders: The child can do a variety of exercises with these materials, including matching them with the cylinder blocks, stacking them on top of each other to form a tower, and arranging them in size or different patterns.

When the yellow, red, and green cylinders are placed on top of each other, they all are the same height.

The pieces are stored in a box with two hinged opening sides.

The color pattern of the cube is painted all around the outside of the box (except the bottom).

In the primary levels (ages 3-6), it is used as sensorial material.

There are many Montessori sensorial materials, and more are being investigated and developed by teachers around the world.