Joanna dives into what the Montessori sensorial activities are and how you can teach your little one to enhance their senses using household materials!
Sensorial activities teach your child how to isolate, compare, and classify their perceptions about the world through the five senses: tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory.
Sensory activities build nerve connections in the brain, support your child’s language development, cognitive growth, motor skills, problem-solving skills, and social interaction. These activities are specifically made to develop further your child’s discrimination of contrast and attention to detail.
The Sensorial curriculum can be divided into eight categories.
Visual activities are designed to develop your child’s ability to discriminate between object size, color, and shape. These lessons indirectly prepare your child for mathematics, as it introduces them to concepts such as height (short and tall), breadth (wide and narrow), and length (long and short).
Montessori visual activities include the use of the:
Tactile activities are designed to refine the sense of touch through the manipulation of different impressions given by various materials. These activities are especially useful for children who struggle to learn through visual or auditory means and need tactile experiences to retain information effectively.
Montessori tactile activities include the use of the:
Baric activities are used to refine a child’s awareness of different object weights. They also expand children’s vocabulary by introducing them to superlative words such as: heavy, light, heavier, lighter, heaviest, and lightest.
Activities used in Montessori classrooms to refine your child’s baric sense are the Baric Tablets.
Thermic activities are used to refine your child’s awareness of the thermic quality of different objects when placed in room temperature. They also expand children’s vocabulary by introducing them to superlative words such as: cold, warm, coldest, warmest.
Montessori thermic activities include the use of the:
Auditory activities are used to refine your child’s awareness of different sounds. They also expand children’s vocabulary by introducing them to superlative words such as: loud, soft, loudest, softest.
Montessori auditory activities include the use of the:
Olfactory activities are used to refine your child’s awareness of different smells. This is important because the sense of smell is closely related to the brain’s limbic system, a part of the nervous system responsible for memory and emotions.
An activity used in Montessori classrooms to refine your child’s olfactory sense are the Smelling Bottles.
Gustatory activities are used to refine your child’s awareness of different tastes. These activities introduce children to the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.
An activity used in Montessori classrooms to refine your child’s gustatory sense are the Tasting Bottles.
Stereognostic activities are used to refine your child’s ability to perceive and recognize objects (shape, texture, and consistency) in the absence of visual and auditory information.
An activity used in Montessori classrooms to refine your child’s stereognostic sense are the Stereognostic Bags.
Looking for sensorial activities to do with your child?
Check out my book 'Fresh Montessori' for 50+ Montessori activities!
