Why are Montessori materials central to learning?

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The role of Montessori materials is often mentioned when talking about this active pedagogy. And this is indeed what is most surprising when you enter one of our international Montessori schools. But what is it exactly? Why is this Montessori material so relevant? Much more than simple tools, these carefully designed elements enable children to self-correct, develop their autonomy andlearn at their own pace.

Montessori pedagogy is based on the idea that every child has unique potential. It involves preparing a rich, stimulating environment, where the senses are mobilized and curiosity encouraged. The child can explore and assimilate knowledge in a natural way. Montessori materials embody this approach by being fun to handle, educational and structured.

But what is this Montessori material? What are its unique features and many applications? How can it play akey role in developing children's cognitive, social and sensory skills?

What are Montessori materials?

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Montessori materials are one of the pillars of the Montessori pedagogy. It is designed to put the child at the center of learning. Each element is carefully designed to encourage exploration, autonomy and the pleasure of self-discovery.

Definition and general characteristics

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Montessori materials are distinguished by specific features that make them unique and particularly suitable for children:

• The child at the center: equipment designed to meet the child's needs and abilities. It is child-sized, adapted to the child's height and strength. It helps them learn through direct experience and manipulation.
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• Quality and aesthetics: made from noble materials (wood, metal), it's attractive, durable, clean, complete and always in its place. Simple, uncluttered colors and shapes facilitate learning and naturally attract children's attention.
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• 6 fundamental principles :
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  • The material is sensory. It enables children to mobilize their senses, constantly refining them and facilitating learning. We never go straight to the intellect.
    
    
  • He develops one quality at a time. For example, to learn how to order from largest to smallest, the child works with 10 red bars, which vary only in size.
    
    
  • Each material introduces a single difficulty at a time, allowing the child to concentrate on learning a specific skill.
    
  • Logical progression: children are never set up to fail. They only move on to the next activity in the overall progression if the previous one has been introduced by the adult and mastered. This guarantees smooth, structured learning.
    
    
  • The child corrects himself thanks to the built-in error check. The child always has the opportunity to correct himself. This makes them independent of adult control. They get direct feedback on the work they've done, and can correct themselves straight away if necessary, so as not to let anything wrong get lodged in their minds.
    
    
  • Direct and indirect objectives for each material: materials are not chosen by chance. On the contrary, they are designed to meet pre-defined objectives, so as to provide objective support for the child's development. For example, one of the direct objectives of the touch tablets is to make the child sensorially aware of the difference between smooth and rough. One of the indirect objectives of this same material is to prepare the child to touch rough numbers or rough letters.
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A specific Montessori environment and materials for the crèche

For children aged 0 to 3, whether in a crèche, with a childminder or at home, we speak of a Nido (which means "nest" in Italian). It's an environment specially designed to meet babies' specific needs for safety, exploration and independence. In this space, everything is designed to encourage the toddler's natural development.

The main features of the Nido include :

• A safe space: everything is at the child's height, with low furniture, soft carpets and an uncluttered environment to avoid sensory overload. The same is true of an adapted bedroom, with a closet at child height, a correctly sized table and chair, a floor-level bed, etc.
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• The right equipment :
  • wooden rattles and hanging objects to stimulate fine motor skills and awaken the senses;
  • remanence or object permanence boxes: thanks to these materials, babies understand that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible.
  • the observation tower to encourage toddlers to explore their environment in complete safety. At home, it's very useful in the kitchen, for example.
  • free-motor equipment, such as exploration mats, floor mirrors and grab bars.
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• Early practical skills are encouraged: little ones can experiment with simple activities such as pouring water, inserting shapes into boxes, stringing beads on adapted strings, etc.

Our bilingual Little Lions Montessori crèches in Clichy and Marseille are equipped with a Nido. They are equipped with all the materials needed to promote the sensory, cognitive and motor development of your very young children.
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Maternelle Montessori: the 5 main learning areas and their main materials

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In Montessori nursery schools, materials are organized into five main areas. These correspond to the main areas of learning. To guide you, we've listed a few examples of materials according to the area and objective of these 5 main learning zones.

• Practical life
  • Key equipment: jugs and spoons for decanting, dressing frames, tongs for transferring objects, brush and dustpan, shoe polish, etc.
  • ‍Objective: to develop independence, fine motor skills and concentration through activities inspired by everyday life. This episode of the Les Adultes de Demain podcast with Olivia Licoys sheds light on the benefits of Montessori practical life activities.‍
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• Sensory life
  • Key materials: red bars (length), cylindrical blocks (dimensions), touch pads (textures), staircase, pink tower, sound boxes, etc.‍
  • Objective: help children refine their sensory perceptions by exploring concepts such as size, texture, weight or color, using touch, sight, hearing, smell...
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• Mathematics
  • Key materials: golden beads (introduction to the decimal system), rough numbers (preparation for writing numbers), binomial cube (introduction to algebra), odd and even numbers, Seguin tables, etc.
  • ‍Objective: to introduce mathematical concepts in a concrete, progressive way, stimulating the logical mind and abstract thinking.
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• ‍The language
  • Key materials: rough letters (tactile recognition of letters associated with sounds), mobile alphabet, farm, vocabulary cards or nomenclature cards.
  • ‍Objective: to prepare children for reading and writing, while enriching their vocabulary and understanding of sounds.‍
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• Science and culture
  • Key materials: geography maps, zoology puzzles (animals), materials for botanical or physical experiments.‍
  • Objective: to stimulate curiosity about the world around us and provide an introduction to the natural and social sciences.

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Montessori materials for 6-12 year olds: in-depth exploration

Between the ages of 6 and 12, children go through a period marked by strong intellectual development and a desire to explore more complex concepts. Montessori materials for this age group are designed to meet these needs. They offer concrete tools that gradually prepare children for abstract learning.

Mathematics: logical thinking in action

Mathematics takes on a new dimension, with materials that encourage children to explore more complex concepts while building on the foundations laid in kindergarten.

• Advanced equipment :
  • The golden pearl bank to consolidate notions of the decimal system and introduce major operations.
  • Bead chains to work on multiplication, number squares and cubes.
  • The Pythagorean tables for understanding number relationships.
  • Binomial and trinomial cubes: manipulated in kindergarten, they can be used to deduce remarkable identities, such as (a+b)² and (a+b)³.
• Objective: move from the concrete to the abstract by exploring the basics of advanced mathematics such as geometry, algebra and fractions.

Language and writing: developing complex skills

Children aged 6-12 are beginning to take full ownership of the written and spoken language, as they deepen their command of it.

• Specific equipment :
  • Great grammar lessons, using colored symbols to represent the different grammatical functions (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).
  • Sentence analysis cards, to help unravel the structure and meaning of complex sentences.
  • Creative writing, with materials for writing stories and texts independently.
• Objective: encourage a deeper understanding of language and develop writing and expression skills.
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Science and culture: exploring the world

At this age, children's curiosity extends to the whole universe. Montessori materials offer them concrete ways to discover natural sciences, history, geography and more.

• Key material :
  • Geography maps and puzzles to learn about continents, countries and regions.
  • Scientific experiments, such as using materials to explore the principles of physics, chemistry or biology.
  • Timelines of history, showing the evolution of the Earth, civilizations and human discoveries.
• Objective: to stimulate curiosity about the world and encourage a global understanding of science and culture.

Between the ages of 6 and 12, children are no longer content to observe and manipulate. They seek to understand the "whys" and "hows". Montessori materials for this age group guide them in this quest for knowledge, while developing their independence, logic and creativity.

In the bilingual schools of the Esclaibes International Schools network, foreign languages are at the heart of learning. From nursery school onwards, children are taught in both French and English. They will find the same material in the French classroom as in the English one. In the latter, they also use American textbooks. Everything is set up so that each student can become bilingual in English... or in French, depending on their mother tongue.
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The role of Montessori materials in the child's overall development

Montessori materials play an important role in a child's overall development. They are not just teaching tools, but meticulously designed supports. They support each child's learning, respecting his or her individuality and needs. This is one of the benefits of choosing a Montessori school for your child.
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Reinforce autonomy and self-confidence

One of the aims of Montessori materials is to enable children to become actors in their own learning. By manipulating the material, they explore, experiment and learn for themselves.

• Learn on your own: thanks to the error control built into the equipment, children can identify their mistakes and correct them without adult intervention.
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• Reinforcing self-confidence: this autonomy gives the child a sense of mastery and accomplishment. It reinforces their confidence in their abilities.
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• A secure environment: the adult intervenes only to guide or present material. The child is free to work at his or her own pace.
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Learn at your own pace

The child becomes his or her own educator, thanks to the materials carefully set up and accurately presented by the adult. They work at their own pace. They never feel they're learning too fast or too slowly. He's himself, and that's what counts most.

He can repeat as many times as he likes, as many times as necessary:

• or to assimilate the proposed learning ;
• or to gain confidence in one's abilities.

The adult never interrupts the child as long as he or she is concentrating on the exercise and in the spirit of the presentation proposed by the educator.

The child will not necessarily, or even rarely, reproduce the same perfect gesture as the adult right from the start. But as long as the above-mentioned condition is met, the educator will not intervene.
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Promoting sensory and cognitive development

Maria Montessori firmly believed that the senses are the gateway to knowledge. In one of her articles, Sylvie d'Esclaibes shares her research on the intelligence of the hand. She reminds us that Kant said that the hand is the visible part of the brain, while Maria Montessori said that :

"It is through the hand that the mind is formed.

Montessori materials are designed to mobilize these senses and help children refine their perceptions, especially those that come through the hand:

• Mobilizing the senses Each material calls on one or more sensory modalities. For example:
  • The red bars help to distinguish lengths when manipulating them.
  • Recessed cylinders help to perceive differences in size and shape.
  • Touch tablets refine the distinction between smooth and rough.
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• Enhancing cognitive skills: by mobilizing their senses, children also develop skills such as memory, observation and concentration.
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• Preparing for future learning: sensory activities lay the foundations for abstract skills such as mathematics and language. This is clearly demonstrated by the role of Montessori materials such as the Cube du binôme, which Marie Robert presents in the following paragraph.

Montessori materials embody an educational approach in which the child becomes the main actor in his or her learning. By encouraging autonomy, mobilizing the senses and respecting individual rhythms, it prepares children to become confident, curious individuals capable of taking on the challenges of the world with confidence.
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An example of the role of Montessori materials: the binomial cube

Montessori materials can be applied to every stage of a child's education.

Marie Robert, co-founder of our bilingual Montessori schools, explains the binomial cube.

The binomial cube is a strange box containing cubes of different colors. It's a concrete representation of the mathematical formula of the binomial (a+b)³ = a³ + 3a2b + 3ab² + b³.

It's a material we find in our 3-6 year old environments.

By practicing this mathematical puzzle, children create mental images that will later help them understand and assimilate algebra. In this way, they develop their logical and mathematical minds.

As the student moves into algebraic concepts, he or she can translate this material into algebraic formulas.

The direct aim of this material is to sensorially construct the cube by distinguishing dimensions and colors.

Indirect goals are :

• oculomotor coordination ;
• development of concentration ;
• the development of a logical mathematical mind ;
• preparation for algebra.
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Montessori materials at Esclaibes International Schools

In our international Montessori schools in the Esclaibes network, Montessori materials are at the heart of learning. It is carefully selected and adapted to accompany children in their development, from nursery to elementary school, respecting the sensitive periods 0-3 years, 3-6 years and 6-12 years identified by Maria Montessori.
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In nurseries and kindergartens: equipment to promote autonomy

From age 0 to 6, children go through key periods of development. To meet their needs, our nurseries and kindergartens are based on Montessori pedagogy. We provide children with high-quality Montessori materials. They evolve in a secure environment, adapted to their development.

• Our main objectives are :
  • Develop their independence through activities that encourage them to explore on their own;
  • stimulate their ability to adapt in a rich, caring environment.
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• To achieve these goals, children in kindergarten, in both French- and English-speaking environments, evolve in the 5 major material areas. At this age, children use specific materials for practical life, sensory life, math, language, as well as science and culture. These tools help them build self-confidence and independence.
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• A caring attitude teachers trained in Montessori pedagogy The Montessori approach: in addition to the materials, educators adopt a guided and respectful approach. They allow each child to learn at his or her own pace.
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Montessori materials: an observation tool for the educator

Montessori materials not only benefit the children, they are also a valuable tool for the educator. It enables them to better understand and support each student. The Montessori educator can :

• identify children's natural interests and talents, by observing their choice of materials;
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• meet individual needs: the use of the equipment reveals the areas in which the child excels or, on the contrary, those in which he might need support;
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• evaluate without interrupting: thanks to the integrated error control, the educator can observe without intervening. This allows the child to progress at his or her own pace, while noting the progress made.

Elementary: continuity in hands-on learning

In our elementary classes, the Montessori approach continues. And it's enriched by teaching tools adapted to the needs of children aged 6 to 12.

• Learning by doing: Montessori materials continue to play a central role in helping students understand complex concepts in math, language, science and other disciplines.
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• Varied workshops and activities: these concrete supports are complemented by workshops aimed at developing skills that are essential for children's future.

We have set up specific tools for our schools to help your children develop :  

• organizational skills: they learn to manage their work independently thanks to the individualized work plan.
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• self-discipline and decision-making: they take responsibility for their choices and actions.
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• self-expression: expressing themselves with confidence, both orally and in writing, and refining their critical thinking skills: this is what we propose to work on in the children's philosophy workshops led by Marie Robert.

Montessori equipment designed for educational excellence

From the first manipulations in the nursery to in-depth exploration in elementary school, Montessori materials play an essential role in our international bilingual schools in Paris, Clichy and Marseille. They embody a pedagogy of autonomy and adaptation. Each tool is carefully designed to nurture children's natural curiosity. Each material and activity gives them the means to blossom into confident, responsible individuals.

Do you have any questions? Would you like to enroll your child in one of our bilingual schools? Just get in touch!

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