Sensorial Curriculum

creating patterns by matching the knobbed cylinders to the knobless cylinders 

Problem solving and using visual and tactile discrimination to build the trinomial cube 

A snow globe makes a beautiful center piece for an extension to work with grading the colors in Color Box 3.

The ability to categorize, organize, and analyze requires higher level thinking and builds a strong foundation for mathematics. 

How long are the red rods lined up end to end? These students used various materials in the classroom, including their own bodies, as units of measurement to answer that question. 

Dr. Montessori believed that there is nothing in the intellect that doesn't first exist in the senses. Children are constantly taking in information from their environment. Their brains analyze the information and form impressions. From the ages of 0-3 the process is unconscious. From the ages of 3-6 observations of the environment are conscious and intentional. During the age of 2-3 there occurs a great push from the child for independence, with the child often asserting him/herself in the choices that he/she makes. He/she takes the impressions that he/she actively gets from his/her environment using his/her senses to classify information. Children from 3-6 years old need to have order to process the myriad of impressions gathered through their senses to be able to form connections between things and situations. Development as seen through brain research is a process. Repetition of exercises in a consistent environment help strengthen networks of connections in the brain.

Dr. Montessori described man's hands as the instruments of man's intelligence. The materials in the Sensorial Curriculum involve the use of the hands in a classifying act. The hands and the mind work together making a mental connection between an abstract idea and its concrete representation. The sensorial materials are concrete pieces of information that can be organized into meaningful patterns. Work with the didactic material helps to develop a strong foundation for mathematical concepts.