My Top Ten Favorite Montessori Materials
There are so many beautiful materials, it's hard to choose. Still, it was fun to sit down and try to narrow it down to my ten most favorite...the ones I wish I could have worked with when I was a kid!
10. The Sandpaper Letters – brilliantly enabling children to see, touch, and say (hear) a phonetic sound. It doesn’t matter what your learning style is, these have got you covered.
9. The Movable Alphabet – what a great idea! The first time I heard of it – without seeing it – I thought, “An alphabet that moves? How can that be?” Sure enough, it does.
8. The Golden Beads/Bead Stair – math has never been so hands-on or so satisfying. Plus, the beads can be used for truly endless types of math activities.
7. Pouring & Scooping Work – the perfect intersection of the child’s own desires, and the acquiring of a life skill. Kids can’t resist it.
6. Nomenclature & Classification Cards – hmm, I wonder why I like these so much? I love the fact that Montessori kids can tell you the parts of a volcano, the sun, the moon, and the earth by the age of 5.
5. The Wooden Puzzle Maps – a fantastic way to teach geography, and like so many other Montessori materials, they’re beautiful as well.
4. The Checkerboard – fun, challenging, and clever. I never would have thought this up myself, but it works perfectly.
3. The Triangle Boxes – how I wish I had these in high school during my geometry class! Things would have made so much more sense.
2. The Pink Tower – it’s just so perfectly formed, each block proportionately smaller and smaller. Everything from the color to the shape of it just says “Montessori”.
1. The Binomial & Trinomial Cubes – I’ll never forget when I took the Montessori training, and the teacher was explaining how each side of each cube related to a term in the binomial and trinomial equations. A light bulb went on! I got it!
I’m sure you have your own personal favorites! Care to share?
10. The Sandpaper Letters – brilliantly enabling children to see, touch, and say (hear) a phonetic sound. It doesn’t matter what your learning style is, these have got you covered.
9. The Movable Alphabet – what a great idea! The first time I heard of it – without seeing it – I thought, “An alphabet that moves? How can that be?” Sure enough, it does.
8. The Golden Beads/Bead Stair – math has never been so hands-on or so satisfying. Plus, the beads can be used for truly endless types of math activities.
7. Pouring & Scooping Work – the perfect intersection of the child’s own desires, and the acquiring of a life skill. Kids can’t resist it.
6. Nomenclature & Classification Cards – hmm, I wonder why I like these so much? I love the fact that Montessori kids can tell you the parts of a volcano, the sun, the moon, and the earth by the age of 5.
5. The Wooden Puzzle Maps – a fantastic way to teach geography, and like so many other Montessori materials, they’re beautiful as well.
4. The Checkerboard – fun, challenging, and clever. I never would have thought this up myself, but it works perfectly.
3. The Triangle Boxes – how I wish I had these in high school during my geometry class! Things would have made so much more sense.
2. The Pink Tower – it’s just so perfectly formed, each block proportionately smaller and smaller. Everything from the color to the shape of it just says “Montessori”.
1. The Binomial & Trinomial Cubes – I’ll never forget when I took the Montessori training, and the teacher was explaining how each side of each cube related to a term in the binomial and trinomial equations. A light bulb went on! I got it!
I’m sure you have your own personal favorites! Care to share?
Comments:
I am really intrigued by the math materials. While I was good at math, I am pretty sure that I don't "understand" it. Is there any way I can as an adult take a course or something on Montessori math? One Montessori book I read explained the Pythagorean theorem, which I can use, but didn't know why it worked until I saw that.
Also can you explain the checkerboard?
I highly recommend going to this site: Math Album. There you will find a list of all the 3-6 materials (many are also used in 6-9), and a detailed description of how they are used.
You can purchase math manuals from lots of places, including Nienhuis. See www.nienhuis.com to buy a catalog.
At this site, you'll find a short description (and picture) of the checkerboard, as well as info on buying printed notes on presenting it: Montessori Resources.
Thank you for your list! And the links for info too!! I'm just about to embark on making my own bead materials this summer. I'd love to just buy them all, but there are so many other Montessori materials that I want to buy that I couldn't make appropriately so I thought I'd start with the bead materials as I know my dc will want to work with them right away!! I really enjoy your blog and site, thank you for providing such great resources and ideas!! Blessings!
http://happyheartsmom.typepad.com/sweetness_and_light/
Good for you for making the beads! That's definitely a "doable" project; I buy handmade bead stairs from a mom on eBay and they're awesome - I don't have the time to make them, but she does a great job.
Well, I caved and went ahead and bought ALL the bead material, I couldn't wait, LOL!!! I'm sure I'll be inspired to make other stuff, this was just too daunting!! Maybe I'll make a quilt checkerboard in my spare time ;-) Thanks for the links to the presentation materials.
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