Montessori Sensorial: The Pink Tower

Montessori Sensorial: The Pink Tower

The Pink Tower consists of 10 blocks, starting with the smallest (1cmx1cmx1cm) to the biggest (10cmx10cmx10cm). There are many activities or extensions with this manipulative. We did them all today.

Presentation: Show all pieces and teach how to carry them. Discuss size differences between cubes (blocks).

Put all blocks in order on the floor (see picture above).

Extension 1: Build the tower (biggest to smallest)
with all blocks centered. See picture above.

Extension 2: Build the tower (biggest to smallest), but aligned  on the left.
The smallest block must fit in the space to the right.

Extension 2 (finished) 

Extension 3: Build the tower (centered) and ask child to close his/her eyes.  Remove a block and place it in front of the tower. Ask child to find where the block goes in the tower and let him/her make an educated guess. If the child isn't correct, ask them to explain their reasoning out loud so you can hear when they're thinking. Give correct answer and discuss why (place the block in the right place to show that it really belonged there).
Extension 4: Same as Extension 3, but this time, hide the block that was removed behind you. This time, the child will have to find which block is missing by just looking at the tower. K did ok, but not too well without seeing the block. In Extension 3, it helped a lot to see the block that was taken out of the tower to see if it fell under the "big, medium or small" category. But without the block, he was just guessing. He's not even 3.5 years old, so I am sure there will be plenty of time to practice this important skill.