ACE Montessori Enriched Home Preschool, Cobourg
---- Where Independence and Character are Nurtured----
The Sound Boxes:
This activity trains the ear to discriminate between different sounds and find matching pairs. ( Sensorial Album 34)
This falls under Auditory Sense.
Baric Tablets:
This activity develops the ability to make discriminations in weight. ( Sensorial Album 42)
Children learn new vocabulary such as ' light' and 'heavy'. A blindfold can be used as an extension to enhance the ability to tell the difference between weights.
A child of four years old and upwards is shown this activity. It falls under Tactile Sense.
The Smelling Bottles:
This activity refines a child's sense of smell. Children learn how to match same smells. Children also learn the names of the different scents, such as lavender or basil.
A child of four years old and older is shown this work. It falls under Olfactory Sense.
Sensorial
In Sensorial, children will explore and refine their senses. Sensorial is a beginning link to Arithmetic.
Children will be introduced to the sense of sight (visual), hearing (auditory), touch (tactile), smell (olfactory), and taste (gustatory), as well as other sensorial sensations such as temperature, colours and shapes (2D and 3D).
Examples of Sensorial Activities& their Importance in Child Development
The Pink Tower:
This activity promotes control of movement, perfecting hand movements, visual and muscular perception of dimension and size. ( Sensorial Album, 9)
Children explore how to carry the materials and build the pink tower in order of size starting with the largest cube. Children are taught how to remove the tower.
A child of two and a half and upwards is shown this material. This activity falls under Visual Sense.
The Tasting Bottles:
This activity refines a child's sense of taste. The child is introduced to vocabulary such as ' sweet', 'salty', 'sour' and 'bitter', as he or she matches identical tastes.
A child of four years old and older is shown this work. It falls under Gustatory Sense.
Current Scientific Research & how it validates Dr. Montessori's principles
In a PBS Parents online article, published on April 17 2017, entitled "' I Figured It Out!' Helping Kids Become Tenacious Problem Solvers", Deborah Farmer Kris (associate at Boston University’s Center for Character and Social Responsibility) recognizes that children learn through their senses and their natural curiosity enables children to become problem solvers.
In a Montessori classroom, children are given large blocks of time to explore and re-explore works that interest them. In Sensorial, children are given the freedom to refine their senses through the sound boxes, smelling bottles and
the Bells. Teachers encourage children to persist with the work and children get to have their 'I did it!' moment once they've completed the job.
Education Specialist Tony Wagner is quoted as saying, "One of the most important skills is “the capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life.”
In the Montessori classroom, with a three-hour work cycle, children benefit from having the time to problem solve and nurture creativity. For example, I've witnessed a child take out all the cubes from The Pink Tower, the Broad Stairs and the Long Rods and create amazing structures and creatures using those materials in innovative ways.