I Love MontessoriUnderstanding the Sensorial Environment Series: Part 4July 15, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
Sensorial lessons for the most part are given in silence. Language is used to name the lesson at the beginning and to invite the child to work with the material at the end of the presentation. When language is used during a lesson the directress has to remember to use very precise vocabulary. It is important to be specific and limited with the terminology used. Language is only used during a lesson when the Color Tablets are presented and when giving a Three Period Lesson. In the case of the Color Tablets, the directress needs to talk in order for the child to understand the matching aspect of the lesson and to tell the child the name of the colors.
In the first part of the Three Period Lesson the directress is giving the child the names of the objects so that the child can associate the object with its name. During the second part the directress employs a recognition technique, saying such words as “show me,” “touch,” “give me,” and other related actions. The third phase consist of asking, “What is this” questions. Sensorial lessons should only be supplemented with language when the language used will assist the child in successfully completing the activity.
The Sensorial technique is a multi-faceted method of learning. Through the use of singular quality focus activities the child’s senses are awakened. The sensory revelation that is experienced by the child during this period leads to a greater intellectual capability. The sensorial practice sets the groundwork for further intellectual growth. The crucial roles the senses have in education are illustrated through the connection between the various sensorial experiences the child has and all of the activities in the Sensorial environment.
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Understanding the Sensorial Environment Series: Part 3July 3, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
All of the Sensorial apparatus have specific characteristics that help the child to use them. One of the characteristics in the materials is that it isolates the sense. Whenever possible, all the other sensory clues are removed. For example, when working with the tactile sense one should encourage the child to use a blindfold to enhance the sense of touch to assist him in recognizing different textures. The next characteristic is of the materials is that they isolate the level of difficulty. When giving lessons or placing materials on the shelves the directress should follow a sequence that allows the child to work with the materials with ease. The materials also follow a simple to complex characteristic. The position of the materials on the shelves should go from most simple to most complex, left to right and top to bottom. The apparatus are also auto-educational. Since most materials have a control of error built in, the child learns by discovering mistakes on his own. The beauty, clarity and precision of the materials also encourage and allow the child to work independently.
The classroom setting in a Montessori institution is perfectly designed to provide limitless sensorial experiences. Furthermore the activities that pertain to the sensorial lessons are given in a very specific order. “Order is one of the needs of life which, when it is satisfied, produces a real happiness” (Montessori, 1973, 52). The child will attain the ability to organize and thus become a more logical thinker. The overall clarity of thought being present at this early stage will lead to classification and organization of information. The child is presented an object which is then manipulated by the child. The ensuing familiarity that is fostered with the sensorial tool leads to the understanding of conceptual topics. Concrete contact with the materials leads to a deeper comprehension of the concept because of the physical relation that the child has just formed with the concept. This learning phenomenon is called the process of abstraction. The sensorial method is the most natural of the teaching modes for the child. The child is innately curious about the surrounding environment, consistently interacting with what is available to touch, see, and hear.
The sequence of the Sensorial activities is presented in a particular fashion. The child is first introduced to a familiar and known activity. They are then presented with an unfamiliar, unknown similar activity. An example of this sequence is the Knobbed Cylinders and the Knobless Cylinder. The Knobbed Cylinders are a set of four wooden boxes that have holes and ten cylinders with knobs that pertain to each different sized hole. The Knobless Cylinders come in a set of four boxes that contain cylinders which vary in height and diameter. Most children would be able to complete the Knobbed Cylinders without having had a lesson on them. This is due to the fact that the cylinders have predetermined fitted slots, providing a built in control of error. The Knobless Cylinders would be a little harder to decipher. Depending on which box you use, the cylinders are to be graded in a particular order without a built in control of error.
Some activities are also very concrete while others are very abstract. The Touch Boards are a concrete activity that helps the child discriminate between the feeling of roughness on one side and the feeling of smoothness on the other. On the other hand, the Trinomial Cube is very abstract. When this activity is performed the child is building a large cube by matching smaller colored cubes and rectangular prism that physically represent the Trinomial Theorem. Once they have mastered building the cube they begin to develop a more mathematical and logical way of thinking.
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Understanding the Sensorial Environment Series: Part 2June 21, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
The Sensorial environment is important in a Montessori classroom because learning is reliant on the five senses. This bonded relationship between learning and the senses is relevant in the development of the forming child. The importance of the senses in relationship to the expansion of the mind is enriched through the Sensorial environment. “There is in a child a special kind of sensitivity which leads him to absorb everything about him, and it is this work of observing and absorbing that alone enables him to adapt himself to life” (Montessori, 1967, 62). They are learning to refine all of their senses by experiencing contact with the Sensorial equipment. The exercises and materials that comprise the Sensorial environment are designed to target one sense at a time. This is exactly what the Sensorial environment provides for the children, an opportunity for them to explore all of their senses through individual activities that help to isolate, yet, still enhance all the senses.
The Sensorial environment is divided into the following six senses: Visual, Tactile, Stereognistic, Auditory, Olfactory, and Gustatory. The Visual materials aid in the child’s discernment of unique colors, shapes, and dimensions. The materials that represent the Tactile portion consist of texture, density, baric, and thermic. Texture materials demonstrate how things feel. Density materials help differentiate between sizes of objects. Baric materials demonstrate weight differences. Thermic materials exemplify temperature differences. Stereognistic materials represent the combination of touch and movement without visual assistance. “Two sensations, tactile and muscular, are mixed together, and give rise to that sense which psychologists call the ‘stereognistic’ sense” (Montessori, 1985, 117). Auditory materials accentuate the distinction of unique sounds and tones. Olfactory materials address the difference between odors. Gustatory materials are geared to the taste buds and deciphering the contrast of flavors.
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Understanding the Sensorial Environment Series: Part 1June 9, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
The sensorial environment is an area that younger children show the most interest in the classroom. They will go into this area and spend all morning exploring and playing with the enticing equipment. They are first drawn to it because of their familiarity with the equipment and because of its visual appearance. They enjoy being creative and exploring all of the potential things they can do with the equipment. The children in my classroom sometimes go around the environment feeling and touching everything on the shelves. They then choose an activity and spend hours figuring out what else they can do with it besides the lesson given. Sometimes they just lay out materials, look at them, and put them right back on the shelf. At times they will comment by saying, “This is heavy” when carrying the broadest Brown Stair or “This is cold” when touching the Thermic Tablets. One of my students was so interested that immediately following a lesson given to another student on the Brown Stairs she said “I want to do that.” Another time a child said, “Oh wow” once she saw that I had laid out the Red Rods. It brings me joy to see that the children find so much interest in the materials once I have presented them.
While children love imitating what you show them it is inevitable that they will also make it their own by changing it in some way. I have observed children in my classroom doing many different things with the equipment. The Red Rods is one of the pieces of equipment they love to play with. One of the variations I have observed is them making a maze and then trying to walk in between the rods without stepping on them. By using the equipment in this way they are learning to have control of their movements and are becoming more aware of their space. Other equipment that they utilize includes the Brown Stair and the Pink Tower. Some of the children like to pretend to build a city with this particular equipment. It is extremely interesting to see them turn into architects. They will stand the brown blocks to make them into skyscrapers and then lay some of them down flat to insinuate houses. Through the exploration of this material they are developing a perception of their surrounding environment and the differing sizes of real world objects.
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