One of the beautiful aspects of the Montessori Sensorial materials is extensions. With those children can put into practice their ability to grade and discriminate materials by width, length, size. From my experience, children master the Pink Tower, the Brown Stairs, the Red Rods, and the Knobless cylinders very shortly after the initial demonstration.
Sensorial extensions provide multiple opportunities to revisit these materials over and over again. Children create interesting patterns, stretch their imagination and usually work in a small group of peers which is a wonderful way to practice sharing and collaboration.
It’s Italian Montessori blog post (in English) that demonstrates numerous extensions for working with the Pink Towers and Brown Stairs which includes free printables.
You can also download free printable cards from Creciendo con Montessori here.
Montessori Works generously shares a large collection of free Sensorial Extensions printables which also include the Knobless Cylinders and the Red Rods. Making Montessori Ours made their own Pink Tower and Brown Stairs, materials turned out exceptionally well. Have a look for yourself.
Cherine demonstrates their The Broad or Brown Stair, Pink Tower & Extension work here.
For more wonderful materials – 12 Free Pink Tower Extensions ю
I particularly enjoyed this video on the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs extension presentation.
Here is another wonderfully written post on Sensorial Extensions from Just Montessori. There is an abundance of inspirational ideas there!
Carrots are Orange wrote a series of posts dedicated to Sensorial Extensions. Here is one of them: Montessori Sensorial Variations & Extensions II The Work Plan in their post-Knobless Cylinders Extensions: A Montessori Print Shop Review shows a different way for children to create their own extensions with the Knobless Cylinders using printables. I am definitely going to try this!
Another great resource for free Knobless Cylinders printable extensions is Förskoleburken which I found listed on Living Montessori Now post.
Children often enjoy creating forms and shapes with the Constructive Blue Triangles. Montessori Constructive Blue Triangles Activity Set is the post written by the Helpful garden who kindly included their free printables.
Montessori For Everyone also share their free extension printable here.
Montessori Services offers Sensorial Cards. These cards provide an extension to activities using the Brown Stair, Pink Tower, Knobbed or Knobless Cylinders. By matching the parts of the apparatus to corresponding base cards, children refine visual discrimination of size. By comparing solids and planes, the child’s perceptions become more abstract. Montessori Services have a wonderful series of Sensorial materials that I decided to include here. I think they can be a useful addition to the Sensorial area in the classroom.
This absorbing activity stimulates children to find and match shapes and then discover the way shapes go together to make designs and pictures. Encourages counting, sorting, and manual dexterity skills.
Encourage counting, sorting, and manual dexterity skills. SuperMind is an absorbing activity that stimulates children to find and match shapes and then discover the way shapes go together to make designs and pictures.
Ideal for any child who has mastered the Mighty Mindset.
SET Card GameThe Family Game of Visual Perception
This engaging game offers the opportunity to flex our innate visual perception and critical-thinking skills by picking out sets of cards based on visible traits (symbol, color, number, and shading).
Wooden Tangram PuzzleAncient Chinese puzzle activity
Seven simple pieces. An unlimited number of designs. It’s no wonder the ancient Chinese tangram has captured the imagination of children (and adults!) for centuries! Shape and pattern recognition skills are developed and creativity inspired by this exceptionally well-made version.
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Christmas Themed Knobless Cylinder Extensions
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Gemstones – Posters And Matching Cards – Free Printable
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How To Do Montessori At Home On A Budget
How To Help Young Children Regulate Their Emotions.
About Anastasia. Anastasia is the founder of Montessori Nature, a blog about Montessori - inspired and Nature-based explorations. She taught in a Montessori setting for 10 years and has been practicing the Montessori way of learning and living for the last 19 years. She loves designing engaging educational printables for children. Learn more here.
I love all the resources here, Anastasia! Thanks so much for linking to my post. I featured your post as Free Printables of the Day at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page and on Pinterest. 🙂
Thank you so very much, Deb!!
I am always struck by how amazing and simply beautiful Montessori and inspired materials are. Thank you for including us!!
You are very welcome, Cherine!
This is a wonderful list of resources. Thank you for putting it together.
Thank you, Tanya! There are great inspirational ideas out there! I loved yours too!