The Pink Tower is one of the most iconic Montessori materials used in the Early Childhood classroom. It is a set of ten wooden cubes, ranging in size from 1 cm to 10 cm, all painted pink. The cubes are designed to help children develop their visual and spatial perception skills, as well as their ability to discriminate between sizes.
- What is the Pink Tower?
- What is the Pink Tower used for?
- How is the Pink Tower Presented?
- Indirect Preparation for Later Lessons
- Conclusion
What is the Pink Tower?
The Pink Tower is part of the Montessori Sensorial curriculum. Children are encouraged to explore the cubes through touch and sight, and to arrange them in order from largest to smallest. By doing so, they develop their ability to recognize and differentiate between sizes, as well as their hand-eye coordination and concentration skills. The Pink Tower is also used to introduce mathematical concepts such as seriation and the decimal system.
The Pink Tower blocks are made of natural wood and painted with a non-toxic pink paint. Each block is a perfect cube, with smooth edges and corners. The smallest block in the set is 1 cm³, and the largest block is 10 cm³. Each block is exactly ten times larger than the one before it. The blocks are stored on a shelf in order from largest to smallest.
Why is it Pink?
Each cube of the Pink Tower is painted pink to help children focus solely on the lesson at hand, rather than the color of the cubes. The blocks are all the same shape; the only way to differentiate them is by size. By painting them all the same color, the focus is on the size and dimension of the blocks, rather than their color or pattern.
It is said that Maria Montessori tried many different colors but pink was the color that attracted her students the most. And thus, the tower of cubes became the Pink Tower.
What is the Pink Tower used for?
The Pink Tower is typically introduced to children between the ages of 2.5 and 4 years old as part of the Early Childhood Sensorial curriculum.
Order, Concentration, Coordination, Independence
The Pink Tower is used to reinforce the foundational Montessori concepts of order, concentration, coordination, and independence. Children learn to carefully carry each cube with both hands, which develops coordination and balance. They learn to delicately place the cubes on their rug, and systematically build their tower, which helps develop their sense of order and concentration.
Sensory and Cognitive Development
Working with the Pink Tower develops and refines a child’s sense of visual discrimination. Children learn to compare and contrast the size of the cubes, which enhances their ability to reason and think logically. The Pink Tower increases their spatial awareness and their ability to visualize objects in three dimensions. As children arrange the cubes from largest to smallest, they begin to visually perceive the concept of quantity. This visual representation forms the basis for understanding numerical order and sets the stage for counting and arithmetic operations.
How is the Pink Tower Presented?
The Three Period Lesson
The Montessori Three-Period Lesson is a fundamental teaching method used to introduce new concepts and vocabulary to children in a structured and effective manner. Developed by Dr. Montessori, this approach aims to facilitate optimal learning experiences by engaging the child’s senses, promoting active participation, and fostering meaningful connections between ideas and experiences.
The first time a child is introduced (called a Key Lesson) to the Pink Tower, the Montessori teacher will follow the format of a three period lesson. This key lesson is given to an individual child, that’s not to say that a group of children aren’t observing the lesson, but the lesson is meant for the one child. Each of the children will eventually receive their own introduction to the Pink Tower and then they will be ready to choose it whenever they are interested.
Key Lesson
When presenting the Pink Tower for the first time, the teacher will invite the child over to the material. The teacher carefully brings one cube to the work area at a time, demonstrating how to walk and hold the cube with two hands. The cubes are placed on the mat in a random order. Next, the teacher starts with the largest cube as the base, pausing to compare cubes before selecting the next one. They build the full tower in this way. This is all done with minimal talking. This first lesson is about visually discriminating the size of each cube. Vocabulary will come later. Upon placing the smallest cube atop the tower, both the teacher and child may rise to inspect it from all angles, including a bird’s-eye view.
After deconstructing the tower and rearranging the cubes randomly once more, the teacher invites the child to take a turn. If the child makes a mistake in building, they will usually spot it and correct it on their own. Upon completion, the teacher shows the child to return the cubes systematically, beginning with the largest cube, back to it’s shelf.
You can read step by step instructions on how to present the pink tower lessons on Montessori Album.
Extensions
Once the child has mastered building the Pink Tower, there are a nearly limitless number of extensions that await introduction.
Pattern Recognition: Children create and replicate patterns using the cubes, exploring concepts of symmetry, sequence, and repetition. This extension promotes cognitive flexibility and problem-solving skills.
Mathematical Exploration: The Pink Tower serves as a precursor to mathematical concepts such as seriation, volume, and geometric relationships. Children can engage in activities that involve counting, sorting, and comparing the cubes based on size or volume.
Blindfolded: The use of a blindfold is a popular extension that isolates one sense and enhances the child’s focus on the material. By removing the sense of sight, the child must fully concentrate on each cube individually as they compare it to the others.
Sensorial Extensions: Children explore the Pink Tower in conjunction with other sensorial materials, such as the Brown Stair or Red Rods, to further develop their understanding of size, dimension, and spatial relationships.
Group Activities: Collaborative activities involving the Pink Tower encourage teamwork, communication, and cooperation among children. Group challenges, such as arranging the cubes in a specific sequence, promote social interaction and peer learning.
Artistic Activities: The child could trace one side of each cube on pink paper and then pin punch each square out. Then they could glue each square to a large piece of paper to build a paper ‘pink tower’ they could take home!
Read more about the progression of lessons for sensorial materials here.
Indirect Preparation for Later Lessons
While the Pink Tower is primarily used as a sensorial material, it also has indirect benefits for later lessons, especially in the area of elementary math. Here are a few ways in which the Pink Tower can help prepare children for future math concepts:
- Size and dimension: By exploring the different sizes and dimensions of the cubes, children are developing their understanding of spatial relationships and mathematical concepts such as measurement and volume.
- Seriation: The Pink Tower also helps children develop their ability to seriate, or put objects in order based on size. This is an important skill for later math concepts such as sequencing, patterning, and comparing numbers.
- Visual discrimination: The Pink Tower encourages children to visually discriminate between different sizes and dimensions. This is an important skill for later math concepts such as geometry, where children will need to be able to distinguish between different shapes and sizes.
An eagle-eyed Early Childhood student will notice the similarities between the Pink Tower and the cubes in the Bead Cabinet and cubes found in other Montessori materials. These connection shouldn’t be pointed out by the teacher, but rather allowed to be discovered by the children when they are ready.
Materials and the Mind
Explore the qualities that make the Montessori materials unique amongst learning activities, didactic tools, teaching aids, and toys.
Conclusion
The Pink Tower is a valuable educational tool for children to develop their spatial awareness, visual discrimination, and fine motor skills. By manipulating the blocks, children can learn to differentiate sizes, order objects by dimension, and refine their hand-eye coordination.
The Pink Tower also encourages independent learning and exploration. Children can experiment with different configurations and build their own structures, fostering creativity and problem-solving skills.
Madeline has been a Montessori educator for 16 years, with experience in both Children's House and Elementary levels. Her favorite Montessori lessons to give are the Grammar lessons. Madeline lives in Virginia and loves to travel with her family and trying out new recipes at home!