The Montessori Sensorial area has several activities that teach about size: small vs. large, thick vs. thin, and long vs. short. These activities have several extensions that enhance the child's understanding of the materials and concepts.
Pink Tower with Brown Prisms
The Montessori pink tower cubes measure in width in centimeters, from 1 cm to 10 cm. The bases of the brown prisms also measure in width in centimeters, from 1 cm to 10 cm. The cubes and the prisms can be perfectly matched up. Children can use this to explore new patterns and building creations.
Knobbed Cylinders with Knobless Cylinders
Each set of knobless cylinders has a corresponding set of knobbed cylinders. Children can try to fit the knobless cylinders into the correct knobbed cylinder block.
The red, green, and yellow knobless cylinders all match up in diameters. Children can stack cylinders that have the same diameter. Blue cylinders can be matched to the green and yellow cylinders by height.
Red Rods with Number Rods
The red rods of the sensorial area match up to the number rods of the math area. Children can match up the two by length. Using the two materials together can also allow for further patterning activities.
Matching to Cards
Children can match three-dimensional materials to two-dimensional cards. Some Montessori companies have cards available to purchase. ABCTeach is creating printing cards and templates to match up to materials. Or, teachers can create their own.
Cards can simply be matching the pink tower or brown prisms to a printed square. Perhaps it is a circle with diameters that match the red, yellow, and green knobless cylinders, and three of the knobbed cylinder sets. Or maybe it is a pattern of circles or squares printed on a larger card, to which the child matches the entire set.
Patterning
Montessori sensorial materials can be used for patterning practice. Patterns could be drawn to scale on a smaller card or photographed for the child to recreate. These can be patterns that rearrange the order of the brown prisms or red rods. They could be color patterns based on the knobless cylinders. Or, they could be other creations made with the red rods.
Patterns are not meant to only be created by the teacher. Children should be encouraged to come up with their own pattern ideas, which could be artistically recreated on paper, or photographed by the teacher.
Montessori sensorial size materials help refine the visual sense to determine dimensions. Using extensions, such as matching corresponding materials to each other, matching materials to cards, or creating patterns, further refine the visual sense. They also deepen the child's understanding of size.
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