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.

Extensions and games

Lately in the classroom I've really been focusing on showing extensions of sensorial materials to the children, to encourage them to go back and practice the things they've already been shown so they can truly understand and master them. I have at least one child who feels that after she has done something once, she's done with it, no need to practice (even if it wasn't all that easy the first time!). By introducing some little 'games' she can do with friends though, I've gotten her to practice a lot more with the materials and get to know them a bit better.

While there are about two dozen or so different sensorial materials, the extensions are pretty similar. The children can do different types of matching.. They can match the materials themselves, find things in the classroom environment that are the same color/shape/size/etc., or even just bring one set to a table on the other side of the classroom and try to remember what they're looking for while navigating across the room. All this little games help build up their memory and really help solidify the aspect of the material that they're working with.

C doing an extension of the color tablets where he collects items
from around the classroom that match the color of the tablets.
Several children observed this and couldn't wait to try it themselves!

Another main extension that I've tried to make a point of introducing is the language that goes with each material. Things like the color tablets and geometric shapes have obvious language to be given, but all the sensorial materials have a certain bit of language associated with them. For example the pink tower is large/small, the brown stair is thick/thin, and the red rods are long/short.

The specific words are used to introduce the children to the idea of comparing two different qualities through language. In a certain context one red rod may be the longer one, but next to another rod it may be shorter. While a child  may be able to put the rods in order, they may have no idea how to explain verbally to another person what they did. The point of these language extensions is to formalize and give the language for something the children  already understand.

I do want to point out that as a teacher I'm not actually trying to teach children the 'idea' of large and small, I trust that they've already noticed that objects are all different sizes. What I'm trying to supply them with is the language associated with these different properties so they can communicate about them with other people.

Montessori Monday

So I did want this blog to be not just about my doings in Hong Kong, but also to add some Montessori philosophy into it. I'm also hoping it will help me learn how to explain the Method in a concise way that people who know nothing about it can understand. So I'm going to try to every Monday have a post about a different Montessori material and how it plays an important part in the curriculum.

Maria Montessori with children

But since today is the first post let's do a quick overview of the Montessori curriculum. Maria Montessori began the first Montessori class in 1907 in the slums of Italy. The owners of a building for low income families initially hired her to keep the children who were not old enough for school occupied while their parents were at work so they did not damage the building. Dr. Montessori began this school with only a few materials originally designed for children with special needs, and some practical activities such as hand washing and sweeping. The children in this setting flourished and their behavior so impressed visitors that new schools following the same method were opened and the scenario repeated with children from different backgrounds. Over the years Maria Montessori developed materials for teaching reading, writing and math due to the prompting of parents. She found that not only could children do these higher level academics when given the right materials, but that they enjoyed mastering them as well. As the years progresses Dr. Montessori expanded her teachings to children of school age, and then for children from birth to three.

100 years later the Montessori method is still in use and succeeding with children around the globe. Some schools follow the philosophy as laid out while others have adopted new ideas as the years have progressed. The Association Montessori Internationale is the body which helps monitor schools for their adherence to the original Montessori method. Unfortunately the term 'Montessori' is in the public domain and many schools which claim to follow the philosophy do not. Today many research studies about child development are finding that the ideas developed by Dr. Montessori in the 1900's have a scientific base.

In the children's house, which covers children from 3 to 6 years of age, there are four main areas of the classroom: practical life, sensorial, language and math. Practical life encompasses those simple, everyday activities that we do to maintain and beautify our environment and selves. Activities like buttoning, dusting, caring for plants or preparing food may all be part of the practical life curriculum. The sensorial materials are specifically designed to isolate one quality of the world such as color, smell or weight, and give it a physical form. These materials are not designed to teach the children that objects have different properties (such as roughness or smoothness) but to help them classify and name these qualities. The area of language in Montessori covers both oral and written language (which is both writing and reading). Much of the language material is given after the child has had experience in practical life and sensorial as these activities indirectly prepare the child for writing and reading. The math materials are designed to give children physical objects that they can manipulate when working with numbers. Montessori found that even very young children could do arithmetic with numbers into the thousands if given the right material.

Beyond the materials the Montessori classroom emphasizes the building of community. Children are given a chance to practices the lessons of grace and courtesy, which include things such as blowing your nose, and greeting visitors. The children are encouraged to collaborate and help one another, a system that is greatly enhanced by the mix of ages in the classroom. The youngest students are shown the culture of the classroom by the older ones, and in turn help them practice leadership skills. Montessori focuses on the whole of the child's development, not simply the academic skills.