How do you use this material? The Ellipse is a line on the floor of the classroom. It is sometimes in tape, and sometimes painted. Occasionally, classrooms will have different or additional shapes, but the →

How do you use this material? Dish Washing is a big material in the Practical Life area. It is presented to a child who is confident with pouring and able to follow a long sequence →

For many of us, cursive is a mainstay in our lives. We grew up diligently practicing our handwriting in school and watching our parents write in cursive at home. Our role models lived out our →

How do you use this material? Color Box 3 is a large wooden box in the Sensorial Area, containing 63 color tablets: gradation sets of 7 tablets of each of the following colors, blue, red, →

How do you use this material? Color Box 2 is a long wooden box in the Sensorial Area, containing 22 color tablets: pairs of blue, red, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, white, grey, brown, and →

How do you use this material? Color Box 1 is a small, unobtrusive wooden box in the Sensorial Area, containing six color tablets: two blue, two red, two yellow. The guide will invite the child →

How do you use this material? The Cylinder Blocks are one of the first materials a child might be introduced to in the Sensorial Area. There are four cylinder blocks. When they’re on the shelf, →

How do you use this material? The Geometry Cabinet is located in the Sensorial Area. There are six drawers, containing various triangles, polygons, quadrilaterals, and curved figures. The first shapes we introduce are circle, square, →

How do you use this material? The Sandpaper Phonograms are similar to the Sandpaper Letters -- they are cursive letters in sandpaper on a colored board, each one represents a sound, and they are found →

Recently I went out thrifting and found this Mancala board for $2. Mancala is available at any store with a board game section. It is also a cheap and common find at thrift stores. Originally purchased →

The path to literacy is unique in the Montessori classroom. Rather than begin by identifying common simple words -- cat, ball -- we begin with sounds, and move first to writing, then reading. We start →

How do you use this material? The Metal Insets are displayed on a shelf all their own. The guide selects one of the ten insets, or shapes, and the corresponding frame, along with a square →

There are many unexpected moments in the way Montessori presents various concepts of skills to children, including the surprise of introducing children to handwriting first through cursive. The Sandpaper Letters are iconic -- pink or →

How do you use this material? The Moveable Alphabet is a collection of letters arranged in two boxes. The vowels are blue, and the consonants are pink, to coordinate with the Sandpaper Letters. We’ll take →

How do you use this material? An assortment of containers with lids on is in a basket or on a tray on the shelf. The child takes the collection to a table or rug. The →