How to Use the Montessori Pink Tower

"The senses, being the explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge."

- Maria Montessori

Although the legendary Montessori Pink Tower is typically the second sensorial material presented to preschoolers in a traditional Montessori primary environment, it happens to be one of our kids' favorites. So, let's talk about how they work with it.

Be sure to grab your free guide below for step-by-step instructions on how to use the Montessori pink tower.

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What Are Montessori's Sensorial Materials?

Sensorial materials encourage the development and refinement of the five senses.  They isolate one sense at a time and have a built-in control of error that provides the child with the freedom to self-correct without the aid of the guide.

What is the Montessori Pink Tower?

The pink tower was designed by Dr. Montessori for use by her pupils in Casa Dei Bambini, her first classroom.  It consists of ten wooden cubes from 1 cubic cm to 10 cubic cm, increasing in size by 1 cubic cm each. The color, shape, and texture are the same for each cube, allowing the child to focus in on the visual discrimination of size in these three-dimensional objects.  The Pepto Bismol pink color was found during her research and design process to be the most visually appealing color to the children. 

Why Use the Pink Tower in Homeschool?

The pink tower is simple, attractive, and easy to work with.  Most children ages 2.5 - 6 will enjoy using this material.  What makes it one of the most valuable and therefore recognizable materials in many primary Montessori environments, is that it relates to seven of the eleven sensitive periods of development.  This one set of materials appeals to the child's need for Order, Language, Movement, Sensation, Small Objects, Emotional Control, and Math Patterns, depending on how it is incorporated into their play. 

What Skills Does the Montessori Pink Tower Teach?

• Building the Montessori pink tower according to the lesson 
• Identifying the individual cubes by size
• Using language descriptors (smallest, small, big, biggest) when describing cubes
• Identifying the smallest cube as the unit of difference in size between each successive one

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How to Use the Montessori Pink Tower

• All of our kids work with it the pink tower quite frequently.  As a result, we do not include the two smallest cubes in our homeschool environment at this time.  This seems to be a pretty common adaptation for Montessori environments that include young toddlers.
• The sensorial lesson for the pink tower includes transferring the cubes and stand from the presentation area to the child's work area one by one, using one hand for small cubes and two hands for large cubes.
• You can increase the amount of movement, concentration, and time required to complete the activity by having the child place their mat further from where the pink tower is displayed.
• Afterwards, the child successfully builds the tower by neatly placing the largest cube on the stand, followed by the next largest, and so on, until precisely placing the smallest cube at the very top.

Observations from Working with the Montessori Pink Tower

Our oldest daughter is 6 has been working with the pink tower since she was 2.5.  As a toddler and preschooler, she enjoyed building the tower. I observed her pausing to reassess on occasions where something was out of order. 

The larger, heavier blocks are easier to place with precision, while the smaller blocks may require two hands and several attempts to place precisely.  Also, she was able to demonstrate understanding of smallest, small, big, and biggest, and was able to identify as well as use language descriptors.  

We eventually moved on to introducing the concept of unit of difference in size.

Now, that our oldest is in elementary, she continues to enjoy working with the pink tower. As she gets more involved in her geometry lessons, she goes back to the tower and shares her newly acquired knowledge with her siblings.

Tips for Using the Pink Tower in Groups

While your child may spend most of their time working with the pink tower independently, small groups of children can also work together to build the tower. This kind of activity also appeals to those same sensitive periods mentioned above. However, it offers additional opportunities in the way of language and order, just to name a couple.

After introducing the pink tower and giving ample time for repetition and mastery, you may find that group work with the tower becomes a family favorite activity.

Extensions for the Montessori Pink Tower

Kids really enjoy playing with blocks and ours are no exception. Their favorite extension for the pink tower includes using the cubes as bases on which to stack their Schleich animals collection.

Sometimes, they line them all up by size. Next, they match the size of the animal to the size of the cube. Other times, they like to stack as many as they can on the larger blocks.

The Schleich animals have become a huge component of our homeschool. They can easily be included in many different kinds of lessons, they add interest to the works, and they promote creativity.

Conclusion

The Montessori pink tower is an awesome hands-on way of introducing concepts related to size to your preschooler. Also, it's a beautiful, affordable, and simple yet versatile addition to any homeschool space.

Kids are sure to enjoy exploring and tapping into their creativity using this material. In fact, we are overjoyed at the thought of anyone introducing it into their homeschool environment. It's not just a set of blocks. It's a well-designed interactive tool for engaging young minds.

The best part is they'll never go out of style with your kids. They'll come back to them year after year as they grow and develop in their understanding

Be sure to grab your FREE step-by-step guide to the Montessori pink tower and geometric solids above.

More Montessori Preschool

• Math: Concrete to Abstraction
• Montessori Primary Curriculum
• Homeschool Space for FOUR Kids