The Sensorial Area is one of the core academic areas of the Montessori Primary classroom. This area is designed to help children refine their senses and develop their ability to observe, compare, and contrast various attributes of the world around them. The Sensorial area offers children not only the opportunity to explore and discover, but also to develop their concentration, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills.
The philosophy of the Sensorial area is based on the idea that children learn best through direct experience. The materials in this area are carefully designed to isolate a specific sensory quality, such as color, shape, texture, sound, and weight. By manipulating these materials, children can develop their ability to discriminate and classify sensory information, which lays the foundation for more complex cognitive processes.
Table of Contents
- Philosophy of the Sensorial Area
- Components of the Sensorial Area
- Sensorial Activities
- Presenting the Sensorial Materials
- Integration with Other Areas
- Conclusion
Philosophy of the Sensorial Area
Foundations of Sensorial Education
The Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom is designed to help children refine their senses and develop their ability to differentiate between various sensory stimuli. It is based on the idea that young children have an innate desire to explore and learn about the world around them, and that this desire can be harnessed to help them develop their senses and gain a deeper understanding of the world.
The Sensitive Period for Refinement of the Senses
Montessori believed that there are specific periods in a child’s development when they are particularly receptive to certain types of learning, most of which occur during the First Plane of Development (0-6). The Sensitive Period for Refinement of the Senses occurs between birth and four years of age. During this time, children are able to absorb information about their environment through their senses at an accelerated rate, and are acutely drawn to sensory input. The Sensorial Area is designed to take advantage of this sensitive period and heightened interest in sensorial input by providing children with a wide range of sensory experiences.
Aims and Objectives
The primary aim of the Sensorial Area is to help children develop their senses and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. By providing children with a range of sensory experiences, the Sensorial Area helps them to develop their ability to differentiate between various sensory stimuli, such as color, shape, texture, and sound. This, in turn, helps children to develop their ability to classify and organize information, which is an important skill for later academic and life success. Additionally, the Sensorial Area helps children to develop their concentration, attention to detail, and ability to work independently.
Components of the Sensorial Area
Sensorial Materials Overview
The Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom is designed to help children develop their senses. It contains a variety of materials that are specifically designed to help children explore and refine their senses. The materials in this area are designed to be used by children from the age of three to six years old.
The Sensorial Materials in the Montessori Classroom are designed to help children explore the following senses:
- Visual
- Size
- Color
- Shape
- Tactile
- Texture
- Temperature
- Weight
- Auditory
- Volume
- Pitch
- Olfactory
- Gustatory
- Stereognostic (the ability to identify an object using tactile or kinesthetic sensibility, without looking at it, smelling it, tasting it or hearing its sounds)
Each material in the Sensorial Area is designed to help children hone a specific sense, such as color, texture, sound, smell, or taste. The materials are designed to be self-correcting, so children can learn from their mistakes and complete the activities on their own. For step-by-step instructions of individual Sensorial presentations, Montessori Album and Info Montessori offer detailed presentations.
Common Features of Sensorial Materials
The Sensorial Materials in the Montessori Classroom have several common features. They are designed to be:
- Isolated: The materials are designed to isolate a specific sense so that children can focus on that sense without distraction.
- Sequential: The materials are designed to be used in a specific sequence, with each material building on the skills developed in the previous material.
- Self-correcting: The materials are designed to allow children to correct their own mistakes and learn from them.
- Materialized abstractions: Each material in the Sensorial area is a physical representation of abstract concepts, such as shades of color, volume or dimension, which can be difficult for young children to understand without concrete experiences.
- Natural materials: The materials are made out of natural substances like wood, metal, and glass, in order to give children different sensory experiences and real examples of materials that exist in their world.
- Beautiful: The materials are designed to be aesthetically pleasing so that children are drawn to them and want to use them.
Sensorial Activities
The Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom provides children with activities that help them refine their senses. These exercises aim to help children develop their sensory perception, which is crucial for their intellectual and physical growth.
Visual Sense Exercises
Visual Sense Exercises help children develop their ability to recognize and differentiate between colors, shapes, and sizes.
Materials:
- Cylinder Blocks
- Pink Tower
- Brown Stairs
- Red Rods
- Color Tablets
- Color Box 1: pairs of tablets in the primary colors of red, yellow and blue
- Color Box 2: pairs of tablets in the primary colors of red, yellow, blue; the secondary colors of orange, green, purple; the tertiary color of brown; and pink, grey, black and white
- Color Box 3: 9 sets of color tablets in 7 shades each, from light to dark
- Geometry Cabinet
- Decanomial Square
- Binomial & Trinomial Cubes
- Constructive Triangles
- Graded Geometric Figures
- Knobless Cylinders
Tactile Sense Exercises
Tactile Sense Exercises help children develop their sense of touch. Children are presented with materials which they can use to explore the qualities of texture, temperature, and weight.
Materials:
- Touch Boards
- Tactile Tablets
- Fabric Boxes
- Thermic Bottles
- Thermic Tablets
- Baric Tablets
Auditory Sense Exercises
Auditory Sense Exercises help children develop their sense of hearing. Children are presented with which they can use to explore and differentiate between different volumes and tones.
Materials:
- Sound Boxes
- Bells
Gustatory Sense Exercises
Gustatory Sense Exercises help children develop their sense of taste. Children are presented with materials like sweet, sour, salty, and bitter solutions, which they can taste and compare.
Materials:
- Tasting Jars
Olfactory Sense Exercises
Olfactory Sense Exercises help children develop their sense of smell. Children are presented with materials like different herbs or essential oils, which they can smell and differentiate between.
Materials:
- Smelling Bottles
Stereognostic Sense Exercises
Stereognostic Sense Exercises help children develop their sense of touch and spatial awareness. The Stereognostic sense is the ability to perceive and recognize the form, size, weight, and other properties of an object through tactile or kinesthetic sensations without relying on vision. In other words, it is the capacity to identify and understand an object solely through the sense of touch and proprioception.
Children are presented with materials like mystery bags, which they can use to explore and identify objects using only their sense of touch.
Materials:
- Geometric Solids
- Stereognostic Bags
- Sorting Grains/Beans/Beads
- Mystery Bag
Overall, the Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom provides children with a variety of activities that help them develop and refine their senses. These exercises are designed to be engaging and fun, while also promoting the development of important cognitive and physical skills.
Presenting the Sensorial Materials
The Three Period Lesson
In the Montessori classroom, the teacher presents Sensorial materials in a three-period lesson. The first period is the introduction, where the teacher shows the child how to use the material. The second period is the association, where the teacher asks the child to use the material and identify its properties. The third period is the recall, where the child can use the material independently.
Use of a Blindfold in Sensorial Presentations
Many Sensorial activities involve the use of a blindfold to isolate one sense and enhance the child’s focus on the material. By removing the sense of sight, the child can concentrate on the quality that the material isolates, such as size, texture, or temperature.
Progression of Presentations
The Sensorial materials are presented in a specific order, in order to support the child’s understanding of the concept and quality that each material isolates.
The order of presentations is:
- Pairing
- Grading
- Language
- Games, Extensions and Variations
Pairing: The initial presentation for most Sensorial materials highlights a single sensory attribute. This step focuses on isolating one quality to help children form clear perceptions. For example, a child may pair color tablets in Color Boxes 1 & 2, or pair Tactile Tablets to find which are the same. (Some materials do not offer an opportunity for pairing, such as the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs.)
Grading: The next presentation involves showing the child how to organize the materials with a gradual variation in the sensory quality. Grading helps the child refine their discrimination skills and recognize subtle differences. For example, the child might grade the Red Rods from shortest to longest, or one set of the Tactile Tablets from roughest to smoothest. (Some materials do not offer an opportunity for grading, such as the Smelling Bottles and Tasting Jars.)
Language: After the child has had experience pairing and grading a material, language is introduced. The goal is to connect the sensorial experience with vocabulary, enhancing the child’s ability to express and communicate their sensory perceptions verbally. For example, the child might have a lesson on the vocabulary for long and short with the Red Rods, naming the geometric shapes in the Geometry Cabinet, or identifying and describing scents in the Smelling Bottles.
Games, Extensions, and Variations: Once a child has received the basic presentations for a material, they are encouraged to continue exploring the material through games, extensions, and variations to further challenge and refine their sensory skills. These activities promote creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking. For example, a child might search for objects in the room that match the Color Tablets or the shapes in the Geometry Cabinet, or they might build the Pink Tower with a blindfold, or at a distance across the classroom.
These games, extensions and variations allow the child to explore the material further and develop their imagination and creativity.
Integration with Other Areas
The Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom is designed to provide a foundation for learning in other areas. The materials used in this area are carefully designed to aid in the development of the senses, which in turn helps children to develop other important skills.
Language Development
The Sensorial Area is closely connected to language development. The materials used in this area help children to develop their descriptive vocabulary and to understand concepts such as size, shape, and color. Once children have experienced pairing and grading a material, they are given several language lessons with vocabulary to describe the quality that the material isolates. For example, the Pink Tower isolates the qualities of small and large. Later, lessons are given for comparative language (smaller and larger) and superlative language (smallest and largest).
Some other examples of language lessons for Sensorial materials:
- Brown Stairs: thick/thin, thicker/thinner, thickest/thinnest
- Red Rods: long/short, longer/shorter, longest/shortest
- Tactile Tablets: rough/smooth, rougher/smoother, roughest/smoothest
- Color Box 3: light/dark, lighter/darker, lightest/darkest
- Sound Boxes: loud/soft, louder/softer, loudest/softest
Other materials offer vocabulary for specific shapes (Geometry Cabinet, Geometric Solids), colors (Color Boxes 1 & 2), tastes (Tasting Jars), smells (Smelling Bottles) and natural materials (Thermic Tablets).
Mathematical Concepts
The Sensorial Area also helps children to develop mathematical concepts. The materials used in this area help children to understand concepts such as size, shape, and quantity. For example, the Red Rods help children to understand the concept of length, while the Knobbed Cylinders help children to understand the concept of diameter. Many of the visual materials in the Sensorial area have ten components (ex. The Pink Tower is comprised of ten cubes) in order to lay the foundation for the child’s later exploration of the decimal system.
Cultural Studies
The Sensorial Area is closely connected to cultural studies. The materials used in this area help children to understand and appreciate the world around them. For example, the Geometric Solids help children to understand the shapes of objects in their environment, while the Fabric Boxes and Thermic Tablets offer children the opportunity to explore natural materials they may find in their environment.
Conclusion
The Sensorial Area of the Montessori Classroom is a pillar of the Montessori early childhood curriculum. It provides children with the opportunity to explore and understand the world around them through their senses. The materials used in this area are carefully designed to help children develop their senses and refine their perceptions.
The Sensorial Area is not only important for the development of the senses but also for the development of other important skills such as concentration, coordination, and independence. Children are encouraged to work at their own pace and explore the materials in a self-directed manner.
Overall, the Sensorial Area is an essential part of the Montessori early childhood curriculum and provides children with opportunities for sensorial exploration while they are in a Sensitive Period for Refinement of the Senses. It helps them to develop their senses, refine their perceptions, and develop important skills such as concentration, coordination, and independence.
Gabrielle Kotkov is an AMI-trained 3-6 Montessorian and educational consultant. She has a Master's Degree in Child Studies and is certified in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). She is particularly interested in the intersection between Montessori education and multilingualism, which led her to create the Multilingual Montessori website and podcast. Gabrielle has taught in schools in NYC, Sicily, London, and Austin, and is currently on the teaching faculty of the West Side Montessori School Teacher Education Program, an AMS training center in NYC.