A GUIDED TOUR OF MONTESSORI CLASSROOMS — SENSORIAL
The Thermic Tablets and Thermic Jars: The thermic sense is the ability to distinguish among objects with different temperatures. The Thermic Tablets are a series of pairs of objects of identical size that are made from different materials, such as wood, stone, and metal. The materials tend to feel quite differently from each other at room temperature when lightly touched by a blindfolded child. The challenge is to match them by temperature. The language of temperature is also taught: hot, hotter, hottest, warm, warmer, warmest, cool, cooler, coolest, etc. The Thermic Jars are a set of six little metal containers, which the teacher fills with water of varying
temperatures to prepare the exercise. Two are filled with hot water, two with tepid water, and two with cold water. The child finds the matching pairs by touch alone, placing them in order from hottest to coldest. The Thermic Jars The Baric Tablets: The baric sense is the ability to distinguish among dif- made of a heavier material, and the ferent objects by weight. The Baric third is quite heavy for its size. The Tablets come as a box containing child puts on a blindfold and sorts three pairs of little wooden tablets, the scattered tablets to find identiidentical in size, but made out cal pairs or to determine which in of three different woods. One any given set of two is lighter or wood is very light, the next is heavier.
Exploring the Sense of Smell ... The Smelling Bottles resemble small spice containers with lids that have small holes through which the material inside can be smelled but not seen. The teacher prepares a set of six pairs. The children are challenged to find the identical pairs. Gradually, they learn to identify the source of the aroma. These exercises are extended beyond the classroom to the kitchen, garden, and nature walks. The children are blindfolded and asked to identify flowers, spices, and so on by their aromas. The materials inside the smelling bottles are varied every few weeks to give the child an ever-changing (Above) The Smelling Bottles
challenge.
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