The sensorial curriculum is very unique to Montessori Education, as it aims to teach the child through refining the senses.
Children from birth to 6 years are in what Maria Montessori referred to as a “Sensitive Period” for attention to detail. With such a detail-oriented nature, this is the time when children are most in tune with their senses and most receptive to experiencing distinct aspects of the world through touch, sound, smell, taste, and kinesthetic learning opportunities.
The child beginning the sensorial curriculum first learns through open ended exploratory activities with use of a sensory bin that can be filled with rice, water, sand, and endless other materials. The child can feel for objects, sift, spoon, and pour from different containers all with the freedom of tactile experiences.
The young will also further challenge their tactile development through kinesthetic activities, in which the child feels for and identifies various objects hidden in the mystery bag or mystery box. Initially, the child may just pull different objects from the mystery bag or box and identify them, broadening their vocabulary and enhancing their language development.
The child then advances to feeling objects in the mystery bag or box and using the kinesthetic sense to identify the object they feel based on muscle memory, before pulling it from the bag or box. As they further along through the sensorial curriculum, child enhances each of their senses through activities such as the color boxes for color recognition, the pink tower and brown stair for size gradation, fabric matching for comparing textures, the smelling bottles for identifying distinct scents, the sound cylinders for matching sounds, and so many other sensory based materials.
In the beginning of their Montessori experience, the child will focus on matching and identifying primary colorsand discerning size gradation of height, length, and width. The child then advances to grading shades of colors, comparing the weight of items with the baric tablets, the temperature of items with the thermic tablets, and the pressure of items with the pressure cylinders.
These unique sensory based experiences allow the child to immerse themselves more fully into their environment and truly take in and appreciate their surroundings.