"...the education of the senses makes humans observers." -Maria Montessori, A Montessori Handbook
Young children are urged by nature to explore the environment around them through the repetitive use of all their senses. First, they find out what those objects are and then scrutinize the qualities of those objects by looking at them, holding them in their hands, or putting them in their mouths. By the time they are 8 months old, they have developed the power of distinguishing one object or one person from another. This means that they have previously noticed the characteristics of different objects and realized those differences. As children develop the power of independent movement, they are not content to explore using only their eyes and ears. They start an enormous amount of manipulative work with their other senses by tasting, smelling, touching, and hearing.
One of the main reasons parents need to provide an environment that is rich in manipulative exploration is so your children can expand their scope of knowledge through such activity. Toddlers need to be given the space and opportunity - within safety constraints - to investigate and examine EVERYTHING. Remember they don't know the names of pretty much anything and certainly don't know about function and use. Giving them this freedom will help them gain knowledge of the qualities of their environment; it is through this "research" that they harness the classifying power of their intellect. Feel free to add language to ordinary encounters like the tree bark is rough, this stick is longer than this one, let's play the xylophone quietly, that tastes salty. Exposure is the key at this stage of the Absorbent Mind.
Whether or not your work has been deliberate along these lines, children entering the Primary class have already experienced many sensorial impressions. The Sensorial Materials in the classroom were not primarily designed to give them sensorial input but rather to give them the ability to arrive at a clearly conscious level of discrimination rather than just a vague idea. These exercises were designed to WILL for the process of classification of the environment to begin.
What Dr. Montessori became aware of was that abstract concepts related to the qualities of an object - color, size, texture, form, smell, taste, sound - could serve as keys which aid children in the exploration of their environment. She designed these materials, which are called materialized abstractions, to help them arrive at clear impressions of these abstract concepts to perceive differences and similarities, to distinguish, to categorize and to relate new information as the beginning of conscious knowledge. It is the clarity of the concept that is intended to be given which allows development to rise to a more refined level.
The materials are designed such that:
- the quality intended to be presented is isolated. Example: Red Rods- the quality of length is the concept to be learned. Everything else in the material is the same except for the length of the rods.
- it is attractive so children will be called by the material to work with it.
- it must be used with exactness.
- they must be used individually.
- the teacher has to discern between legitimate variation and fantasy play.
- language lessons can be given following the children's own repetitive experience with each material.
- there is a control of error so that the children can discover and control their own mistake(s). Example: the cylinders don't fit in the holes or there is one left over
The Sensorial Materials are unique to Montessori education. How grand it is to be able to afford children the chance to explore their universe and to internalize the abstract qualities of everything in it! Consider a stick of cinnamon. It is brown, kinda long (or short), smells "warm," tastes delicious, and is smooth in the center and rough at its tips. Your task is to get out of the way, but to stay nearby to supply the things and support their queries.
"Our sensory material, in fact, analyzes and represents the attributes of things: dimensions, forms, colors, smoothness or roughness of surface, weight, temperature, flavor, noise, sounds. It is the quality of the objects, not the objects themselves, which are important." - Maria Montessori, Spontaneous Activity in Education
Sincerely,
Dogwood Class Primary Teacher