How Montessori Materials Provide a Strong Educational Foundation
Unless you are a trained Montessori teacher or have an in-depth understanding of the Montessori Method, there is a certain mysticism surrounding Montessori materials. Young parents often ask why their toddler is sweeping the floor or polishing so many cups, while parents of elementary-aged children want to know how Bead Chains and Binomial Cubes lay the foundation for advanced principles of mathematics. We love answering these questions and understand Montessori can be abstruse — especially for newcomers — so we created this page to shed some light on the science and philosophy behind key Montessori materials.
If you’re looking for more information on the pedagogy underpinning the Montessori classroom materials, check out our Montessori Method page.
Montessori materials explained
Whether it’s a bead chain for helping a child to understand numbers or the moveable alphabet that helps students understand the building blocks of phonics and literacy, Montessori materials engage the child’s senses and provide concrete experiences that promote understanding and critical thinking.
Launa Schweizer, Head of School
Montessori materials are didactic, meaning they are specifically designed to teach. Many of the didactic materials found in Montessori classrooms were originally designed by Dr. Montessori and are based on her extensive study and experience teaching children.
Montessori materials vary by subject and developmental phase, but they share a common pedagogy that informs several core tenets:
- Simple to complex
- Indirect preparation
- Control of error
- Attractive and inviting
- Coordination of movement
Let’s take a closer look at each.
Simple to complex
When most Montessori materials are introduced to a child, they are intended to teach a single skill or concept. This initial concept is simple — like recognizing a sound or determining a difference. Once the child has mastered that first concept, a slightly more advanced concept is introduced. Most Montessori materials follow a logical, developmentally appropriate progression with each concept building on the last and becoming more complex. As the American Montessori Society (AMS) explains, “Montessori students don’t just memorize facts and figures. They also learn the ‘hows, ‘whens, and ‘whys,’ ensuring that learning takes place on a deep and fundamental level.”
Indirect aim
Montessori materials often have a direct aim and an indirect aim. Materials are designed to introduce a concrete principle which ultimately lays the foundation for an abstract idea. For example, a bead chain might be introduced as a simple counting activity (the direct aim) but in counting the beads the child develops an abstract understanding of addition (an indirect aim), and later, multiplication and volume. The idea here is that familiarity with a concrete concept builds confidence and begets future interest, leading to a more robust understanding of more difficult principles down the line.
Control of error
Montessori materials are designed to provide feedback in real time, empowering the child to recognize, correct, and learn from an error without adult intervention. The teacher is the guide, introducing the material, instructing on its proper use, and offering assistance if necessary, but the child steers the actual learning process. The control of error imbued in Montessori materials empowers the child to problem-solve, building their sense of self-motivation, confidence, and independence.
Attractive and inviting
Montessori materials have an intentional aesthetic appeal designed to attract and hold a child’s attention. They are often made of natural materials that are both durable and inviting to the touch — like wood, glass, and cloth. There is a misconception that Montessori materials and Montessori toys are uniformly dull, but Dr. Montessori was deeply aware of how colors attract children and designed her materials accordingly. For example, after observing that children naturally gravitated toward pink objects, Dr. Montessori used the color pink for several key materials including the Sandpaper Letters, the Moveable Alphabet, and the Pink Tower.
Coordination of movement
Many materials are introduced as precise, tactile activities that require some coordination of movement. This allows children to refine their large and fine motor skills and develop a potent sense of muscle memory. Polishing a cup prepares the hand for the circular motions of writing. Using tongs to transfer objects from one cup to another develops the grip they will need to hold a pencil. The Sandpaper Letters introduce the alphabet through touch; the teacher makes the letter’s sound while helping the child trace the letter, utilizing their muscle memory to forge a connection between the letter’s shape and its sound. Young children are often drawn to activities that require movement and the repetition of these physical actions solidifies the associated concept and develops critical dexterity.
Contemporary educators refer to this tried-and-true Montessori approach as “multi-sensory learning,” and have made it the foundation for high-quality early childhood programs, particularly those focused on the science of reading.
The child gives us a beautiful lesson – that in order to form and maintain our intelligence, we must use our hands.
Dr. Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures
Practical Life Work
Dr. Montessori observed that children were naturally drawn to adult work and envisioned the classroom as a “Children’s House,” complete with the regular maintenance and operation of that house like sweeping, dusting, and dressing. This practical life work helps build confidence, maturity, responsibility, and independence in the individual and contributes to a shared sense of classroom belonging. Practical life work also helps children develop a sense of order, process, and practice, indirectly preparing them for academic work.
Sensorial Work
Practical life work like pouring, sorting, and preparing snacks is also often sensorial work, meaning work that helps develop the five senses. Children often learn first by seeing, and many materials are introduced by the visual discrimination of color, form, and dimension. Listening activities help children differentiate sounds and tones. Olfactory materials, like the Smelling Bottles, allow children to develop their sense of smell. Numerous materials use touch to foster kinesthetic learning and strengthen hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and motor skills.
Directory of Montessori Classroom Materials
Each Montessori material was carefully designed with a precise function and logical progression. Scroll through to learn how key Montessori materials work and what skills they teach.
Pink Tower
fine motor skills | language skills | sensorial
What is the Pink Tower?
The Pink Tower is comprised of ten cubes ranging from 1 cubic centimeter to 1000 cubic centimeters. The size progression gives children an early sense of length, width, height, and weight. Unlike traditional blocks, The Pink Tower is uniformly colored so children can concentrate on visually discriminating between the sizes of the blocks. The color is also intentional; Dr. Montessori discovered pink objects were most frequently chosen by children and gave the eye-catching color to this quintessential Montessori material.
What does the Pink Tower teach?
Assembling the Pink Tower requires dexterity and control, helping to develop fine motor movements. Children often make labels to describe the varying sizes of the Pink Tower blocks, building verbal and written skills. The Pink Tower also embodies the idea of “indirect preparation.” Though it is not introduced as a mathematical exercise, the material’s implicit geometry is frequently referenced when older children begin working on squaring and cubing, volume exercises, and even algebra.
Sandpaper Letters
fine motor skills | language skills | handwriting
What are Sandpaper Letters?
The Sandpaper Letters are 26 wooden cards each depicting a lowercase cursive letter rendered in tactile sandpaper. The cards containing consonants are the same attention-holding shade of pink Dr. Montessori selected for the Pink Tower, while the vowel cards are delineated by blue backgrounds.
What do the Sandpaper Letters teach?
The Sandpaper Letters use muscle and visual memory to teach children the sounds of the alphabet. They are guided to trace the letter while the teacher makes the sound the letter describes. Where other early childhood materials can be quite hands-off, the Sandpaper Letters require precise guidance so that the child learns to trace the letter correctly. Repeatedly tracing each letter activates the child’s muscle memory, indirectly preparing them for writing and reading.
Moveable Alphabet
language skills | simple to complex
What is the Moveable Alphabet?
The Moveable Alphabet is a wooden box (or boxes) with 26 compartments, each containing multiple copies of the same cursive letter. As with the Sandpaper Letters, consonants are pink and vowels are blue. The letters are arranged alphabetically and children are instructed to return them to the box in alphabetical order, starting with the top left corner and moving from left to right.
What does the Moveable Alphabet teach?
The Moveable Alphabet is a cornerstone of the Montessori language materials. It is introduced to reinforce the phonetic sound of each letter. Children are initially instructed to find a specific letter from the box and remove it. Once the child has mastered individual letters, they are given simple three-letter words and asked to identify the letter that best represents each sound in the word. They are then given short phrases and asked to make multiple words with the Moveable Alphabet, ultimately going on to write short stories with the letters.
Note: Materials are regularly being added to this section, so be sure to check back for more, or contact us if you’d like more information on a material not currently represented here.