The Montessori Material, the Pink Tower is one of the most iconic Montessori material designed by Dr Maria Montessori herself and is one of the more recognizable materials in a Montessori environment. It consists of ten pink wooden cubes varying in size from one cubic centimetre to one cubic decimetre, differing in three dimensions. With the Pink tower scientifically designed for the Sensorial Area of the Montessori classroom for ages 2 and half years onwards, Dr Maria Montessori believed that working with the sensorial materials enables the children to refine their senses to have a clearer understanding of what they see, feel, touch and smell which helps them to develop their intelligence. Therefore the Pink tower aims to refine the child’s visual senses by discriminating differences in sizes as well as refine their voluntary movement.
How to work with the Pink Tower: As with all Montessori materials, there is a specific way in which the children will work with the Pink Tower. The teacher will first demonstrate to the child how to build the tower on a floor mat, placing each cube centrally on the previous one. Note: If the child wants to participate then let her/ him explore the material than the teacher will present the activity in another time. When the tower is built, the teacher will pause for a moment and then take it down and invite the child to build the tower. The child’s task is to stack the cubes from largest to smallest to create a stable structure. When building a tower with the pink cubes, it is important to hold each cube so that the fingers and thumb grasp four places. The reason for this is to give the child a muscular impression of the size of each cube.
Objectives: - To refine the child’s visual and muscular perception of dimension. - To develop the child’s co-ordination of movement and fine motor control. - To prepare the child, indirectly for mathematics by giving experiences in comparison, grading and seriation. - To teach the child basic mathematic vocabulary.
“The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world.” -Maria Montessori-
