Montessori Sunday: Sound Cylinders

The sound cylinders are a material in the Sensorial area of the classroom. While the majority of materials in this area focus on the visual sense the sound cylinders isolate the sense of hearing (if you couldn't guess that from the name). The material is made up of two sets of 6 sealed wooden cylinders in blue and red. They contain different substances and vary in the loudness of the sound produced when shaken.

The child and adult carry the boxes to the table and line up one color in a row on the table. The adult demonstrates how to lightly hold the cylinder and shake it by each ear to hear the sound it produces. After inviting the child to try the adult says "These red cylinders are the same as the blue ones, let's see if we can match them."

She demonstrates separating out the first of each color and listening to one cylinder at a time. If they don't match the directress demonstrates how to discard one cylinder to the side and try the next of that color instead. When the cylinder do match they are placed side by side to the top left of the table. The discarded cylinders are brought back in to the line and the process is begun again. This way of matching is identical for other sensorial materials in the classroom. That means that even though it can be difficult for the child to do the process independently the first time, the skills they learn help with other materials later. Once they understand the process they can apply it to other matching activities like the smelling bottles, touch tablets and fabric swatches.

Right now most of the children in my classroom still struggle with the matching process. They can match the cylinders by their sounds, but aren't very systematic about it and so usually only end up matching one or two sets before getting bored or frustrated. One of the youngest still simply likes to shake the cylinders and marvel at the sounds they make.

And either process is fine. I don't really care if they can match the sound cylinders perfectly or not. (Though it is a good tool to help identify if a  child is having trouble hearing in general). What I want them to do is begin to refine their sense of hearing, learn that they are different degrees of sound. And as for the matching process...well I'm hoping one day it will click and they'll understand why I tried to present it this particular way. Until then they can try and make up their own systems. Maybe one will be even better.