Baric Tablets, Broad Stair, Brown Stair, Colour Tablets, Constructive Triangles, Counter and Cards, Cylinder Block, Dressing Frames, Faisalabad, Geomatric, Geometric Cabinet, Geometric Solids, Golden bead material, House, Islamabad, Khaiber Pukhtunkhwa, Knobless Cylinders, Lahore, Long rods, Material, Maths, Metal Insets, Montessori, Montessori Material, Montessori Material in Pakistan, Movable Alphabets, Multan, Muzaffarabad, Number Rods, Numbers, Pakistan, Pencil Holders, Peshawar, Pink Tower, Prepared Environment, Punjab, Puzzle Map, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Rough and Smooth Tablets, Sandpaper, Sargodha, Sensorial, Sialkot, Sindh, Sound Boxes, Spindle Box, Touch Tablets - October 10, 2017

Getting know to Montessori Material

By: Muzafar H. Khawaja

Montessori Methodolgy was introduced by Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian Physician. She designed many educational tools and apparatus to cater the learning needs of children. This material can be classified into these categories:

1- Sensorial
2- Maths
3- Language
4- Exercises for Practical Life (EPL)
5- Culture

1- Sensorial Environment :

Sensorial environment Montessori Material helps develop a child's five senses. Tools in this part of teaching include:

- Sound Boxes
- Smelling Bottles
- Tasting Jars
- Thermic Bottles
- Cylinder Blocks
- Knobless Cylinders
- Pink Tower
- Broad / Brown Stairs
- Metal Insets
- Demonstration Tray
- Baric Tablets
- Rough and Smooth Tablets (Touch Tablets)
- Touch Boards
and many more.

Some of the tools of Sensorial Environment also prepare a child for Maths and Language Environments.

2- Maths Environment:

“The guide or teacher must be sure to provide the child with the right tools at the right time in the child’s development to interest the child in mathematics. If interested, the child can discover relationships for him/herself where it is understood that abstraction is an individual process that cannot be forced”.
Dr. Maria Montessori

In maths environment many a tools are used to develop mathematic skills of a child. Some of the tools are:

3. Language Environment:

"To make himself heard, man no longer depended on the volume of his voice. With the alphabet he could be heard from one continent to another, from yesterday to tomorrow. He could reach people distant in space and in time. Without uttering a sound-in silence-his thoughts could be heard all over the world at the same time."
- Mario Montessori quoting his mother

Apparatus for language environment includes:

- Movable Alphabets
- Phonogram Movable Alphabets
- Sandpaper Letters
- Green Boards
and others.

4- EPL

Exercises for practical life develop motor skills of child. The material can be customised and developed by teachers themselves, means Do-it-yourselves DIY kinda material, however, there's a variety of ready made materials available in Montessori Stores, these include:

- Dressing Frames
- Shoe Laces
- Pouring Jug
- Shoe Polis set
- Dust Brush n Pan
- Rug Beater
- Soft Broom
- Garden Broom
- Wooden Tray
- Scrubber
- Squeegee
- Hook n Eye Frame
- Shoe Buttons Frame

5. Culture Environment :

This environment covers a child's learning towards Geographical, Botnical and Natural things. A Montessori House may develop its own garden-cum-zoo plus may keep some wooden puzzles and toys in the house. Some in-stock material is also available in stationary markets of major cities of Pakistan. One can choose these things:

- Puzzle Map of Pakistan (Provinces)
- Puzzle Map of World ( Continents)
- Asia Puzzle Map
- Sandpaper Globes
- Some charts of Animals
- Animal Toys
- Land n Water Form Trays, etc.

Some Pictures of Montessori Material

Sandpaper Letters