Montessori Didactic Materials

Resource designed to aid students in their learning experience
 The 4 Categories Of Didactic Materials

Practical life equipment Materials Sensory material 

presented to students from the
moment that they arrive home. These activities are designed to
Each category can be
They are designed to evoke improve the five senses
movement, encouraging the child used to improve
to manipulate objects and improve skills, (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and
their gross motor skills.  smell). 

Mathematics materials 
Mathematics materials are sensory
Language equipment  materials. The part of the child’s
Children begin to memorize and mind that is responsible for solving
learn sounds and phonemes these problems is designed to order,
subconsciously. Language classify and organize. These
equipment can be used to quicken materials can help children
this process and improve understand how numbers work,
vocabulary.  including the four primary
operations (addition, subtraction,
division, and multiplication)
 Not learning
equipment in the Their aim is not the
conventional external-teaching
sense, children skills or
imparting knowledge
through "correct
usage ".

They aid growth by

providing the child
with stimuli that
Montessori
Didactic Materials
capture his The aim is an
attention and internal-assisting
initiate a process of the child's self-
concentration. construction and
psychic
development.

These materials allow

The child finds the to polarize the child's
freedom he needs attention.
for development.
Design Principles Isolation

First, the difficulty or the error

that the child is to discover and
understand must be isolated in a
single piece of materials. This
isolation simplifies the child's task
for him and enables him to
perceive the problem more
readily. A tower of blocks will
present to the child only a
variation in size from block to
block not a variation in size, color,
designs, and noises, such as are
often found in block towers in toy
stores.
 Design Principles Simple to Complex

Second, the materials progress

from simple to more complex
design and usage.

A first set of numerical rods to

teach seriation vary in length
only.

After discovering length

sensorially through these rods, a
second set, colored red and
blue, in one meter dimension,
can be used to associate
numbers and length and to
understand simple problems of
addition and subtraction.
 Design Principles Indirect Preparation
Third, the materials are designed to prepare the child indirectly for future
learning.

The development of writing is a good example of this indirect preparation.

Knobs on materials have acted to coordinate finger and thumb motor action.

Through the making of designs that involves using metal insets to guide
movements, the child has developed the ability to use a pencil. By tracing
sandpaper letters with finger, he has developed a muscle memory of the patterns
of forming letters.

When the day arrives that the child is motivated to write, he can do so with a
minimum of frustration and anxiety.
Design Principles Concrete to Abstract

Materials begin as concrete expressions of an idea and

gradually become more and more abstract
representations.

A solid wooden triangle is sensorially explored.

Separate pieces of wood representing its base and sides

are then presented, and the triangles dimensions
discovered.

Later, flat wooden triangles are fitted into wooden puzzle

trays, then on solidly colored paper triangles, then on
triangles outlined with a heavy colored line, and finally on
the abstraction of thinly outlined triangles.
At a certain stage in this progression, the child will have
grasped the abstract essence of the concrete materials,
and will no longer be dependent upon or show the same
interest in them.
Design Principles Control of Error

Materials are designed for auto-
education, and the control of
error lies in the materials
themselves rather than in the
teacher.
The control of error guides the
child in his use of the materials and
permits him to recognize his own
mistakes.
This dialogue with the materials
puts the child in control of the
learning process. In time, he will be
able to see it and will correct his
own errors.
What interests the child is the
sensation, not only of placing the
objects, but of acquiring a new
power of perception, enabling him
to recognize the differences.
In Brief,
Montessori Materials …

Develop
Build social
Nurture Make them him into an Help him Sharpens
and Groom
child’s independe active to enjoy sense of
emotional personality
mind nt seeker of freedom empathy
skills
knowledge