Montessori Thermic Tablets
The Montessori Thermic Tablets are a key component of the Montessori Sensorial Curriculum, designed to refine the tactile sense and introduce the concept of temperature.
- 📏 Range Age: 3.5 - 5 years (activity should be adjusted based on the child's age and skill level).
- 🧠 Prerequisites: Sensorial Activities (Tactile Boards, Baric Tablets), Language Activities (vocabulary building activities for temperature and thermal sensations), Cognitive Activities (sorting and classifying by temperature, understanding of hot and cold)
- 🛠️ Enhancement Skills: Thermic Discrimination Skills (distinguishing between different temperatures), Cognitive Development (memory, attention to detail, comparison and contrast of temperatures), Fine Motor Skills (manipulating the tablets, grading them in order of temperature).
This article explores the significance of the thermic tablets in the Montessori method, their role in developing the sense of touch, and practical ways to incorporate them into your child's learning at home.
Content
What are the Montessori Thermic Tablets?
The Montessori Thermic Tablets are a set of tablets made from materials that conduct heat differently, such as wood, metal, and glass.
The child's task is to feel each tablet and group them by temperature. This activity helps children develop their ability to discern subtle differences in temperature through touch, enhancing their tactile sense.
Benefits of the Montessori Thermic Tablets
Integrating the Thermic Tablets into your child's learning offers several benefits:
- 🌡️ Enhances Temperature Discrimination: Children learn to distinguish between different temperatures, refining their sense of touch.
- 🧠 Develops Cognitive Skills: Matching tablets by temperature challenges the child's memory and decision-making abilities.
- 🤲 Improves Fine Motor Skills: Handling the tablets and comparing their temperatures refines children's hand movements.
- 🔍 Encourages Exploration: The activity sparks curiosity about the properties of different materials and their thermal conductivity.
- 🧘 Fosters Concentration: Focusing on the tactile experience helps improve the child's attention span.
Purpose of the Montessori Thermic Tablets
The purpose of the Montessori Thermic Tablets is to develop the child's tactile sense, enabling them to explore and understand objects through their temperature, and to lay the foundation for further sensory exploration and learning.
How to Present the Montessori Thermic Tablets?
Materials
- A box containing six pairs of tablets, each pair offering a unique exploration of thermal conductivity. The materials might include wood, felt, cork, marble, and iron, inviting the child to experience the diverse ways in which substances respond to heat.
- A blindfold to enhance the child's focus on the sense of touch, isolating the thermal experience and encouraging a deeper engagement with the varying temperatures of the tablets.
The following instructions are the basic presentation of Montessori Thermic Tablets:
Presentation
- Begin by taking out one of each tablet from the box and arrange them in a row to your left.
- Show the child the part of your wrist you will be using to feel the temperature of the tablets, rolling up your sleeve if necessary.
- Bring the first tablet from the row down in front of you and demonstrate how to feel its temperature with your wrist.
- Allow the child to feel the temperature of the tablet as you have just shown.
- Continue this process, feeling each tablet on the table and inviting the child to do the same.
- Take out the remaining tablets from the box and place them randomly in the same row as the first set of tablets.
- Close the box and place it in the upper right corner of the table.
- Using the same first tablet as a reference, tell the child that you will close your eyes and find the tablet that feels just like this one.
- Close your eyes and feel the first tablet again to refresh your memory.
- With your eyes still closed, place your wrist on the tablet at the most left in the row and move from left to right, feeling each tablet slowly until you find a match.
- Once you find a matching tablet, bring it next to the first tablet and check the temperatures again to confirm the match.
- Invite the child to feel both tablets to experience the match.
- Place the matched tablets in the upper left corner of the table.
- Repeat the matching process with the remaining tablets, starting with the first tablet in the row each time.
- After all tablets have been matched, mix the tablets and rearrange them in a row.
- Offer the child a blindfold and allow them to match the tablets using their sense of temperature.
- Once the child has finished working with the material, show them how to replace the tablets into the box by placing each matched pair in one slot.
Vocabulary
- Warm - "This tablet feels warm."
- Cool - "This tablet feels cool."
- Hot - "Be careful, this tablet might feel hot."
- Cold - "This tablet feels cold."
- Compare - "Compare the temperature of these two tablets."
- Touch - "Touch the tablet gently."
- Feel - "What do you feel?"
- Temperature - "We are learning about different temperatures."
- Identify - "Can you identify which tablet is warmer?"
Variations & Extentions
Variations
- Introduce tablets with a wider range of temperatures, including warmer and cooler ones, to challenge the child's sensory discrimination.
- Use the thermic tablets in a memory game, where the child matches the tablets based on temperature without looking.
- Incorporate thermic tablets made from different materials, such as metal or fabric, to explore variations in thermal conductivity.
Extension
- Once the child is comfortable with matching the tablets, introduce the concept of ordering the tablets from warmest to coolest.
- Combine the thermic tablets with other sensorial materials, like the thermic bottles, to explore temperature in different contexts.
- Encourage the child to conduct simple experiments to observe how temperature affects other materials, such as melting ice or warming clay.
Recommendations
- Ensure that the tablets are clean and in good condition to maintain the accuracy of the temperature sensations.
- Observe the child's technique and offer guidance to improve their sensory exploration and discrimination skills.
- Encourage the child to work at their own pace, allowing them to fully engage with the activity and develop a keen sense of temperature.
References
- Montessori Education Programs - Montessori Academy
- Blog Montessori - Montessori Parenting
- Montessori, M. (1956). The Discovery of the Child. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 80-95.
- Lillard, A. S. (2017). The Montessori Toddler: A Parent's Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being. New York: Workman Publishing. pp. 95-110.
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