Sensorial
“The discovery that the outside world is indeed the brain’s
real food is intriguing. The brain gobbles up its external environment in bits
and chunks through its sensory system:
Vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Then the digested world is reassembled in the form of trillions of connections between brain cells that are constantly growing or dying, becoming stronger or weaker, depending on the richness of the banquet.” Inside the Brain by Ronald Kotulak
Dr. Montessori understood how important sensorial experiences are for the intellectual development of children. She once said “nothing can be in the brain that was not first in the hand.” Montessori classrooms offer a banquet of sensorial experiences for the children to feast upon. Every area of the classroom is filled with manipulative materials to aid the child in understanding the information they seek.
However, it is the sensorial materials themselves that refine the child’s senses.
Materials are designed to offer the child the opportunity to refine their sense of sight, touch, smell, taste and sound. These materials are a part of the daily banquet offered to nourish the brain of the child in the children’s house.