Montessori Sound Cylinders

Key Takeaways:

  1. Montessori Sound Cylinders are a quintessential Montessori Sensorial Material that promotes the development of auditory sense in children. 
  2. They are a building block for forthcoming sensorial training and building the child’s sensory awareness.
  3. Montessori Sound cylinders are introduced to the child between the ages of 3 and a half to 4 years.
  4. Montessori Sound Cylinders are often graded as soft, light, or loud based on the dimensions and amounts of beads present in the cylinders. 
  5. Along with the developing auditory sense of the child, Montessori Sound Cylinders also enhance fine motor skills in children. 
  6. Montessori Sound Cylinders expand the child’s vocabulary by introducing a child to new terms regarding different levels of sound volumes.

The Montessori Method of education enhances the child’s learning experience by providing them with exciting stimuli that engage their senses.

Sensorial experiences allow children to perform difficult tasks that often involve prolonged periods of focus.

The Montessori Method of education provides your child with unique sensorial experiences that promote hands-on learning and auto-didactic education.

There is a plethora of Montessori Materials that cater to a diverse range of sensorial requirements and Montessori Curriculum subjects.

Each Montessori material is specifically developed to isolate and enhance one or more senses in children.

One such unique Montessori material is the Montessori Sound Cylinders which isolate and enhance the child’s auditory sense.

This material is a fun and exciting way to encourage your child to indulge in sensorial activities and perform meticulous tasks that otherwise would not partake in.

If you are a parent, an educator, or an immediate caregiver who wants to incorporate Montessori Sound Cylinders into your child’s curriculum, intimately understanding the functions of these materials is a requisite.

Here is everything one should know about Montessori Sound cylinders to efficiently facilitate activities involving this engaging material.

What Are Montessori Sound Cylinders?

Montessori Sound cylinders are a quintessential Montessori Sensorial Material that is an integral part of the Montessori Sensorial Area.

As a great introduction to Montessori Sensorial Materials, these sound cylinders are a building block for forthcoming sensorial training and building the child’s sensory awareness.

Montessori Sound Cylinders are a fun way to enhance as well as isolate the child’s tactile and auditory senses.

This Montessori Sensorial Material incorporates two sets of wooden boxes that contain 6 wooden cylinders each.

Both sets of Montessori Sound Cylinders are color-coded in matching pairs of blue and red colors.

Each Montessori Wooden Sound Cylinder incorporates different amounts of metal beads in varying dimensions that create different sounds.

The sounds created by Montessori Sound Cylinders are often graded as soft, light, or loud based on the dimensions and amounts of beads present in the cylinders.

What is the Purpose of Montessori Sound Cylinders?

Montessori Sound Cylinders are an innovative Montessori Sensorial Material that helps children indulge in self-directed education.

The chief aim of this material is to isolate the child’s tactile and auditory senses. While participating in activities involving Montessori Sound Cylinders, children are able to discriminate and distinguish between different volumes or levels of sounds produced by the apparatus.

In simpler terms, the Montessori Sound Cylinders refine the child’s auditory sense or sense of hearing.

Activities involving Montessori sound Cylinders also develop the child’s muscle memory, and auditory memory, as well as enhance the child’s fine motor skills.

Another aim of Montessori Sound Cylinders is to introduce the child to vocabulary involving different levels of auditory volumes, such as “loud” and “soft”.

What will the Child Learn from Montessori Sound Cylinders?

Montessori Sound cylinders are an integral aspect of the Montessori Sensorial Curriculum that allows children to comprehend a varied range of sound volumes.

While most associated sound cylinders only enhance the child’s auditory memory, the benefits of this Montessori Sensorial Material are not limited to the child’s sense of hearing.

Here is a list of benefits your child will enjoy while participating in activities involving Montessori Sound Cylinders:

Sensorial Explosion:

Learn about Sensory development: https://mymontessorimoments.com/sensory-development-in-children/

Montessori Sound Cylinders are Montessori Sensorial materials that enhance the child’s auditory sense.

But the sensory experience is limited to the child’s auditory sense, children with the help of these tangible wooden cylinders are able to enhance their tactile sense.

By matching the blue and red color-coded Montessori Sound cylinders, children are able to engage their visual senses.

Control of Error:

Just like any other Montessori Material, Montessori Sound Cylinders also incorporate in-built Control of Error.

Control of Error in Montessori Materials allows children to independently identify their mistakes and rectify them without any adult intervention.

Each Montessori Sound Cylinder fashions a number on the bottom that has to be matched.

By having an indication of identical pairing between the color-coded Montessori Cylinders children are able to analyze, recognize, identify, and rectify their mistakes.

Refinement of Fine Motor Skills:

Fine Motor skills are the ability to utilize small muscles present in the wrists, fingers, and hands to make deliberate movements such as gripping, grasping, holding, and writing.

Montessori sound Cylinders are a perfect way to enhance and refine your child’s fine motor skills.

Children are encouraged to use a three-finger pincer grip that engages their fine motor muscles.

A pincer grip is necessary for children to hold writing materials and apparatus such as pencils as well as perform tasks such as writing.

Enhancement of Vocabulary:

While initiating or introducing activities involving Montessori Sound Cylinders, parents, educators, and immediate caregivers must use appropriate vocabulary.

Activities involving Montessori Sound cylinders help expand the child’s vocabulary by introducing a child to new terms regarding different levels of sound volumes.

When are Montessori Sound Cylinders Introduced?

Montessori Sound cylinders are an important part of the Montessori Sensorial Curriculum. This Montessori Sensorial Material is often introduced to the child after Montessori Pink Tower, Knobbed Cylinder, and Montessori Binomial Cube.

As a vital aspect of the Montessori Primary program, Montessori Sound cylinders are introduced to the child between the ages of 3 and a half to four years.

How to introduce Montessori Sound Cylinders?

Before introducing activities involving Montessori Sound Cylinders to the child, it is best to acknowledge the aims, appropriate vocabulary, and points of interest of the activities.

Aims of the activity:

  • Refinement of the child’s auditory sense
  • Discrimination of different sounds
  • Distinguishing between volumes
  • Development of auditory memory

Points of Interest in the activity:

  • Varied sounds created by the Montessori Sound Cylinders
  • Weights of different Cylinders
  • Different sensations of the cylinders when shaken
  • Control of Error

Appropriate Vocabulary to be used:

  • Soft
  • Loud
  • The positives, comparatives, and superlatives

Montessori Three-Period Lesson for Sound Cylinders:

  1. Indicating the varied sound volumes of the material “This is the loudest”, “This is soft”
  2. Asking the child to identify a cylinder of a selected sound “Can you show me softest”, “Will you show me loudest”
  3. Asking the child to refer to the material by its name “What is this?”

Presentation of Montessori Sound Cylinders:

It is important to initiate the activity with the loudest and the softest Montessori Sound Cylinders.

The Adult must also arrange the sound cylinders before initiating or introducing the activity.

  • The adult will carry one sound cylinder box while the child carries the other box to the Montessori sensorial workstation.
  • The adult will then place the boxes on the left side of the workstation table and remove the lids from both boxes.
  • The adult will announce the name of the material to the child
  • By using a pincer grip the adult will then pick out the red loudest Montessori Sound Cylinder with their right hand and shake it in their right ear
  • The adult will then place the red loudest sound cylinder on the table
  • The adult will repeat the process with the same cylinder using their left side
  • The adult will direct the child to repeat the process as indicated
  • The adult will then take out the softest blue cylinder and instruct the child to shake the blue cylinder, the adult will then compare it with the softest red cylinder
  • Once the child pairs the two softest red and blue cylinders, the adult will place the pair on the table
  • The adult will then take out the loudest blue cylinder and compare it with the loudest red cylinder
  • Once the child identifies the similarity they will place the pair on the table
  • Upon completing the activity, ask the child to place the material back in its designated place

Are Montessori Sound Cylinders Effective?

Montessori Sound Cylinders are a unique Montessori Sensorial Material that stimulates the auditory sense of the child and promotes them to differentiate between carried volumes of sounds.

Although, unconventional the development of the auditory sense is integral for the child to distinguish between different sounds present in the environment.

Activities involving Montessori Sound Cylinders also help with the development of muscle memory, and auditory memory, as well as enhance the child’s fine motor skills.

Lastly, Montessori Sound Cylinders when introduced with appropriate vocabulary, allows children to identify different levels of auditory volumes, such as “loud” and “soft”.

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