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Sensorial Lesson Descriptions 

Knobless Cylinders 

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Age: 4 years and up

Material: Four boxes of cylinders: 

      Box A-ten yellow cylinders which vary in height and diameter (corresponds with pink tower)

      Box B-ten red cylinders which vary in diameter (corresponds with brown stairs)

      Box C- ten green cylinders which vary inversely in both height and diameter

      Box D-ten blue cylinders which vary in height (corresponds with red rods)

Purpose: visual discrimination of dimension, preparation for mathematics 

Presentation: 

  1. place box at edge of lower right or upper left corner of table mat

  2. place cylinders out at random on the table mat

  3. place cylinders in order from largest to smallest

  4. move hand over finished cylinders and admire gradation of cylinders

Binomial Cube 

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Age: 3.5 years and up

Materials: mat, a box with 8 prisms which represent the elements of (a+b)^3, for example; a^3+3a^2b+3ab^2+b^3. 1 red cube, 3 black and blue, and 1 blue cube

Purpose: preparation for algebra, visual discrimination of form, construction of the cube

Presentation: 

  1. place box on upper left corner of the mat

  2. lay top layer of cube in grouping on mat

  3. organize cubes and prisms according to color in rows on the mat (all pieces with red in one row and all pieces with blue in the second row)

  4. place lid in the corner of the box on the table mat (make sure picture is showing on lid)

  5. start with red cube by corresponding it to the red square on the lid, place cube on the lid

  6. place a red and black prism on the lid touching the red cube-“red touches red.”

  7. continue with blue cube and black/blue prisms

  8. continue with the whole bottom layer

  9. place hand on top of finished layer to show it is complete

  10. continue steps with top layer

  11. examine cube when done

  12. take apart cube one piece at a time

  13. let child work with the materials

  14. put away the cube by first transferring the layers to the mat

  15. build the cube into the box from left to right then top to bottom one layer at a time

Trinomial Cube 

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Age: 4 years and up

Materials: table mat, a box with 27 blocks which represent the elements of (a+b+c)^3, a^3+3a^2b+3a^2c+3ab^2+6abc+b^3+3b^2c+3ac^2+3bc^2+c^3. One red cube, one blue cube, one yellow cube, six red and black prisms, six blue and black prisms, six yellow and black prisms, and six all black prisms

Purpose: preparation for algebra, visual discrimination of form; construction of a cube

Presentation:

  1. roll out mat on table

  2. put box on upper left of mat

  3. lay top layer of cube in grouping on mat

  4. lay bottom layer in grouping without flipping upside down or on side

  5. place lid out so picture is showing

  6. start with red cube by placing it on the lid

  7. next-“red touches red” using red and black cube

  8. continue with blue and black cube

  9. continue with the whole bottom layer

  10. place hand on top of finished layer

  11. continue steps with middle layer starting with blue cube

  12. continue with top layer starting with yellow cube

  13. examine cube when done

  14. take apart cube one piece at a time

  15. allow child to work with the cube

  16. put away the cube by first transferring the layers to the mat

  17. build the cube into the box from left to right then bottom to top

Color Box 2

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Age: 3 years and up

Materials: a box with 22 color tablets: two red, two blue, two yellow, two orange, two green, two purple, two white, two black, two pink, two gray, two brown

Purpose: visual discrimination of color, preparation for art

Presentation: 

  1. unroll a rug and take colors out at random

  2. place the box at the lower right corner of the rug

  3. take out each tablet at random only touching the white edges of the tablet

  4. pick one tablet and hover tablet over other tablets until the match is found

  5. slide matches to upper left corner of rug using two hands

  6. continue matching all colors

  7. when colors are matched correctly, ask the child the names by pointing to one color at a time

  8. if child correctly names a color then put that match away in the box

  9. if the child does not know the color do a three period lesson using one color that the child knows and one that the child does not know

  10. place work back in the box one tablet at a time

The Pink Tower

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Age: 2.5 years and up

Materials: ten pink cubes; first one is one cubic centimeter in size and the cubes increase regularly in size to the last one which is ten cubic centimeters.

Purpose: development of visual discrimination and dimension, preparation for mathematics; the decimal system

Presentation: 

  1. unroll floor rug

  2. one by one place cubes at random on floor rug (make sure to hold each cube with two hands and all fingers)

  3. teacher places first three on rug and child can finish the rest

  4. “I am going to show you how to build a tower!”

  5. build tower by grading blocks from largest to smallest

  6. place each block on the center of the previous block

  7. when tower is complete show the tower is gradual with hands

  8. walk around tower to check that all sides are gradual

  9. allow child to work on material

  10. take a part the tower one cube at a time

  11. build the tower on its side

  12. starting with the largest cube place the tower back on the shelf or stand

The Red Rods

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Age: 3 years and up

Material: ten red rods that only vary in length, the shortest one is ten centimeters long and the following one increases by ten centimeters each

Purpose: visual discrimination of the dimension of length, preparation for mathematics; metrics and decimal system  

Presentation:

  1. take out two floor rugs

  2. starting with smallest rod, place the rods on the floor rug (one by one)

  3. hold one hand at each end of the rod-show child to hold longest rod with one hand on the end and other hand as far as it can go on rod

  4. line rods at the end of the rug at random making sure the edges are even

  5. drag hand over rods, let hand drop dramatically and slide longest one out of edge-always close gaps on rug after taking one rod

  6. show the longest rod then place on other rug

  7. continue to place all rods on the other rug always finding the longest one

  8. when all the rods are placed in order on the other rug check work with smallest rod

  9. show that two or more rods can make the length of one

  10. place rods where they belong starting with longest

Geometric Solids

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Age: 2.5 years and up

Materials: A basket; ten geometric solids as follows: sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, rectangular prism, triangular prism, square-based pyramid, triangular based pyramid, ovoid, ellipsoid

Purpose: visual and tactile discrimination of solid forms, prepartion for geometry

Presentation: 

  1. take one solid out at a time

  2. let child hold and touch the solid

  3. place solid on a surface

  4. repeat process with two more solids- three solids on the floor rug at a time

  5. do a three part lesson naming each solid

  6. after child masters the names of the solids:

  1. put cloth over three solids

  2. ask child to put hand under the cloth and find a solid

  1. put away work one object at time

*don’t have to do a three period lesson right away if the child is not ready*

Constructive Triangles-Trianlge Box 

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Age: 3 years and up

Materials: a triangular box containing: 1 gray equilateral triangle, 2 green scalene right-angled triangles, 3 yellow isosceles obtuse-angled triangles, 4 red equilateral triangles

Purpose: visual discrimination of form and construction of new forms, preparation for geometry

Presentation:

  1. place all items at random from the box onto a flat surface 

  2. examine gray/control triangle and place the triangle at the lower left corner of the surface

  3. group all pieces by color placing one on top of each other

  4. start with the green pieces

  5. trace black outline of one piece with two fingers

  6. find other piece of the green group

  7. slide the two pieces together making the black lines touch

  8. slide constructed green triangle next to the control triangle

  9. continue process with yellow group

  10. continue process with red group starting with middle red triangle pointing towards the you

  11. check triangles with control triangle

  12. disassemble all triangles

  13. let the child have a turn

  14. put away materials starting with the control triangle then green, yellow and red triangles

Smelling Jars

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Age: 4 years and up

Materials: a box or tray with eight opaque jars, in pairs of four different essences. (coffee, cinnamon, pepper, vanilla, ginger, coconut, garlic, detergent are all possibilities)

Purpose: development of olfactory sense, discrimination of smells, to make child conscious that things have different aromas

Presentation: 

  1. place work on a table

  2. pick one jar and open 

  3. smell the jar without touching the nose to the jar

  4. place the jar in front of you on the table

  5. pick up another jar and sniff trying to find the match of the first jar

  6. when the match is found place the pair in front of you

  7. continue until all matches are found

  8. put work away one jar at a time

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