There is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses. ~ Aristotle
The Sensorial Area in the Montessori Classroom
Children live in a world of senses… colors, shapes, forms, touch, smells, tastes and sounds. They receive impressions through their senses from the moment that they are born. The Sensorial activities in a Montessori classroom focus on developing the child’s sensory perception by heightening sensory awareness. The Sensorial materials enable children to clarify, classify and comprehend their world. These are critical skills needed for the learning process.
As perception skills develop, appropriate language is added in the positive, comparative and superlative of the quality illustrated in the material. For example, the Pink Tower activities compare the visual qualities of “large” and “small,” highlighting the comparative qualities of “large, larger, largest” and “small, smaller and “smallest.”
The activities build upon one another. For example, a child learns to soften the fingertips to heighten the sense of touch and then moves from the rough-smooth boards to the touch tablets and sandpaper globe. In this way, the child gains tools and knowledge that help her understand as she explores the world around her. Tracing the leaf cabinet leads to matching the wooden leaves to the leaves in the room and then the courtyard and at some point, the child learns to name the leaf forms and the leaves from the trees in our environment.
The incremental differences in the materials are mathematically based and develop a foundation for mathematics. The Pink Tower, Brown Stairs, Binomial and Trinomial Cubes and the Geometry Cabinet are clear examples of the genius of the Montessori materials. The Sensorial area lays a foundation not only for math but also for music, language, geography, botany, etc. It does this by appealing to the child’s sensory nature and by making learning a natural outcome of their desire to explore.
“The education of the senses makes men keen observers, and not only accomplishes the general work of adaptation to the present epoch of civilization, but also prepares them directly for practical life.”
Geography is part of the Sensorial Area. The sensorial area expands the child’s awareness of the world around and beyond him by providing tools and keys for learning and understanding. The first of the geography materials is a very simple globe on which all of the land areas are covered in sandpaper and the water areas have a smooth surface and are painted blue. The child moves from this to a globe that has each continent painted in a different color. This color-coding is a constant throughout the geography materials and is the same on the flat puzzle maps. The land and water forms also provide students with a concrete visual and language for learning about the world.
Puzzle Maps. The first puzzle map is a flat map of the world with the continents making up the removable pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. First year children learn to remove the pieces, trace them, identify their shape, to name the continents and put them back. The knobs support the pencil grip and strengthen the hand for writing. This process continues for each continent map. As a child progresses, they learn to “extend” the lesson. Children may trace each piece with colored pencils and then label the continents or countries. Some children learn the flags of the states or countries and make booklets. Others look at the geography folders to see pictures of the people, animals, activities and places in each continent.
El Espacio Sensorial No hay nada en el intelecto que no era primero en los sentidos. Aristóteles
Los niños viven en un mundo de sentidos ... colores, formas, tacto, olores, sabores y sonidos. Reciben impresiones a través de sus sentidos desde el momento en que nacen. La actividad sensorial en una clase de Montessori se centra en el desarrollo de la percepción sensorial del niño, aumentando la conciencia sensorial. Los materiales sensoriales ayundan que los niños puedan aclarar, clasificar y comprender su mundo. Estas son abilidades críticas necesarias para el proceso de aprendizaje.
Cuando los ninos empienzan a desallorar sus percepciones, se introduce el lenguaje apropiado, y se añada los positivos, comparativos y superlativos de la cualidad ilustrada en el material. Por ejemplo, la Pink Tower compara las cualidades visuales de los "grandes" y "pequeños", destacando las ventajas comparativas de las cualidades "grande, más grande" y "pequeño, más pequeño."
Las actividades se basan una en otra. Por ejemplo, un niño primero aprende a suavizar las puntas de los dedos para aumentar el sentido del tacto y, a continuación, trabaja con las tablas ásperas/suaves, y entonces con el mundo hecho con papel de lija. De esta manera, el niño gana herramientas y conocimientos que ayudan a comprender su exploración del mundo. El restreo de las formas en el gabinete de hojas les ayuda a comparer hojas en la habitación y el patio y en algún momento, el niño aprende los nombres de las formas de hoja.
El incremento de las diferencias en los materiales están basados matemáticamente y desarrollan en los niños la base de matemáticas. The Pink Tower, Brown Stairs, binomiales y trinomio Cubos y la Geometría del Gabinete son claros ejemplos del genio de los Montessori materiales. El área sensorial establece una base para las matemáticas, la música, el idioma, la geografía, la botánica, etc., apelando a los sentidos naturales del niño.Montessori