Nov 19 , 2022
Top Ten Favorite Montessori Materials
It's difficult to make a decision because there are so many gorgeous materials. Even so, it was enjoyable to sit down and attempt to select my top ten favorites—the people I wish I had had the opportunity to collaborate with when I was younger.
10. The Sandpaper Letters, an ingenious educational tool that allows kids to see, touch, and utter (hear) a phonetic sound No matter what learning style you have, these have you covered.
9. What a fantastic concept, The Movable Alphabet! Without having seen it, when I first heard about it, I questioned, "An alphabet that moves? How is that possible? It does, as it should.
8. Math has never been so engaging or fulfilling as with The Golden Beads/Bead Stair. Additionally, there are countless math exercises that may be done with the beads.
7. Pouring and scooping tasks are the ideal way for children to satisfy their own needs while also learning a valuable life skill. Kids find it irresistible. In fact, when I first entered a Montessori classroom, I was captivated by a child using an egg beater to create bubbles in a dish. Never in my life have I witnessed anything so amazing!
6. I wonder why I like nomenclature and classification cards so much. I adore the fact that by the age of five, Montessori students can name the components of a volcano, the sun, the moon, and the earth.
5. The Wooden Puzzle Maps are a wonderful tool for geography instruction and, like many other Montessori objects, are also aesthetically pleasing.
4. The Checkerboard is entertaining, difficult, and smart. This is something I never would have come up with myself, yet it works brilliantly.
3. The Triangle Boxes: I wish I had these in high school while I was taking mathematics! The situation would have been considerably clearer.
2. The Pink Tower, with each brick getting proportionately smaller. It is just so nicely shaped. Everything about it, including the color and shape, screams "Montessori."
1. The Binomial and Trinomial Cubes - I will always remember during the Montessori training when the teacher was describing how each side of each cube linked to a term in the binomial and trinomial equations. There was an illumination! It's mine! I've learned more about those equations since I was in school.