Sensorial
The Sensorial shelves, unlike Practical Life, house materials which the child has never seen before and which are designed to entice and excite the child’s desire for sensorial input. The child has experienced long and short, heavy and light, rough and smooth, however he has never realised those experiences in concrete form, with the correct vocabulary. These materials provide the child with the information and experience needed to organise and categorise the knowledge that he has. As the child manipulates these materials his powers of observation are sharpened, his periods of concentration are increased, and his creative mind is given the tools, and vocabulary, to run free. The lessons in this area always follow the sequence of matching, grading, language, and games. The Sensorial apparatus provides the child with a key to his explorations of the world and make him aware of the greater detail of the objects which surround him. As the child manipulates these materials he will gain:
- Classification and organization of the mind
- Refinement of the senses
- Ability to form abstractions
- Strengthened powers of observation, perception, and assessment
- A richer vocabulary in both English and Chinese
- Reinforcement of the natural sequence of numbers 1 to 10, in preparation for Mathematics
”The senses, being the explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge Maria Montessori
The Sensorial Materials:
- Materialised Abstractions
- Isolate one quality
- Scientifically created and mathematically graded
- Self-Correcting
- Early preparation for Maths and Language work: