Probably the most iconic and favorite of all Montessori materials, the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs which were was designed by Dr. Maria Montessori herself. They have remains unchanged through time and you’ll find it in Montessori classrooms around the world.

The Pink Tower and Brown Stairs are scientifically designed materials in the Sensorial Area of the classroom. Dr. Montessori believed that working with the Sensorial materials enables the children to refine their senses, have a clearer understanding of what they are seeing, feeling, touching or smelling, and  helps with the development of intelligence. 

The Pink Tower and Brown Stairs aim to refine a child's visual sense by discriminating differences in dimension. Indirectly they prepare the child for Language and Maths. It prepares the hand for writing, as children need to use the 3-finger grip to carry the cubes. Through language games, new vocabulary is introduced to the child such as cube, large, small, bigger and biggest. This enables the child to further explore their environment and find something small, large or something “bigger than this”. It also encourages the child to use descriptive language in the environment.

The Pink Tower and Brown Stairs also prepares the mathematical mind. As the child works with 10 cubes and 10 stairs they are represents the numbers 1-10. It also introduces Geometry, as the child explores the different cubes and rectangular prism and their dimensions. These concepts are not introduced to the child, but are absorbed by their Absorbent Mind.

Pink Tower

Brown Stairs 

Weather Frog

Froggie ...... What's the weather like today?

This week we have begun talking about  the weather each morning and it has been a week of weather!

  The children get to dress Froggie for the day's weather.  During this time we are also working on our their communication skills as they describe the weather they see outside.  We are also continuing to work on our sigh language skills.  They are learn how to sign articles of clothing as well as working or their color signs.  They are also learning how to sign weather words like sunny, rainy, cloudy, and snowy.

Olympic Obstacle Course 

We had to end our week with a little Olympic fun.  The children has so much fun racing through the obstacle course.  I think we have a few athletes in the making.

 Reminders 

• Next we will be starting our Denial unit.

• Students in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 7th grade are collecting food and gently used clothing for Murphy’s Giving Market in Upper Darby. All donations will be collected until Wednesday, February 23rd. See the Happenings for more details.   

• Student Council will be selling Candy Grams at lunch.  $1 per gram - cash or check only.  Blank candy gram forms can be accessed here.  Sales end Thursday, 2/10.  Grams will be delivered on Monday, 2/14.  

• Please have your child Dress in Red or Pink for Valentine’s Day on Monday 2/14.