The Pink Tower - Montessori

This is the pink tower, a Montessori material.

Benjamin has started going to this tower every day, on his own, to play with it.

First, you take a mat out of the basket and unroll it...

...then you get each individual piece from the shelf and bring it over to your mat.

Sometimes an older child is doing something different, so the pink blocks get abandoned...but not for long! His teacher assures me that the pink tower is like a comfort zone for Benjamin.

What is the Pink Tower?

(source: http://www.montessori-namta.org/NAMTA/geninfo/concepts2.html)

The material known as the pink tower is made up of ten pink cubes of varying sizes. The preschool-aged child constructs a tower with the largest cube on the bottom and the smallest on top. This material isolates the concept of size. The cubes are all the same color and texture; the only difference is their size. Other materials isolate different concepts: color tablets for color, geometry materials for form, and so on.

The materials are self-correcting. When a piece does not fit or is left over, the child easily perceives the error. There is no need for adult "correction." The child is able to solve problems independently, building self-confidence, analytical thinking, and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishment.

As the child's exploration continues, the materials interrelate and build upon each other. For example, various relationships can be explored between the pink tower and the broad stair, which are based on matching precise dimensions. Later, in the elementary years, new aspects of some of the materials unfold. When studying volume, for instance, the child may return to the pink tower and discover that its cubes progress incrementally from one cubic centimeter to one cubic decimeter.