Maria Montessori observed that children learn through their 5 senses. The Montessori classroom supports this through many activities to enrich and refine children’s senses. Many of these activities are done with children wearing blindfolds to isolate the particular sense. This allows them to focus more on listening, smelling etc..
The Sensorial area here at Farmview has many materials for the visual sense. Many of these materials are to help children with size discrimination. There are rods, cylinders, cubes and prisms all for ordering largest to smallest, thickest to thinnest and longest to shortest. Children enjoy these activities and can become very creative with these materials. There are also color tablets for matching and grading from darkest to lightest.
For the sense of hearing, there are sound mystery bags with objects to listen to and sound cylinders for matching. Many other extensions to these materials are added throughout the school year.
For the sense of smell, children smell spices, essential oils, and many other smells to match and identify.
The tactile sense is introduced with rough and smooth. Many other activities are introduced such as fabric matching and discrimination between hot and cold.
Of course there is always a daily snack for tasting!
