What is a Pink tower?
It is probably the most iconic and favorite of all Montessori materials, which was designed by Dr. Maria Montessori herself and you will see this lesson in Toddler and primary classrooms.
Looking at the Pink Tower you will think that they are just a stack of blocks, but it has so much more value than that. The Pink Tower is a lesson in the Sensorial Area of the classroom, which is presented to the children between the age of 2-4 years old. When working with the Sensorial materials, it enables the children to refine all their five senses, which are, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. The children get a better understanding, and it helps with the development of intelligence.
These cubes in the Pink Tower are all the same color, shape, and texture but different in size. The smallest is 1cubic centimeter and the largest is 10 cubic centimeters. The Pink Tower aims to refine a child’s visual sense by discriminating differences in dimension.
Presentation: In a toddler classroom, it is presented with 5 cubes only. For Primary, there are 10 cubes present.
This lesson is done on the floor on a rug. First, the child starts taking each cube (starting from the smallest) to a mat. In this process, they can feel the weight and progression of its size. By going back and forth to get each block, the child is working on his voluntary motion and the gross motor skills. The child learns self-control by doing the activity precisely and exactly.
Preparation for Language and Math
The Pink Tower lesson prepares the child indirectly for Language and Math. It prepares the hand for writing, as children are holding the cubes with 3 finger grips, when carrying them. After a few practices with this lesson, the child is introduced with new vocabulary such as cube, big, small, and bigger, biggest etc.
The Pink Tower also prepares the mathematical mind. As the child explores the different cubes and their dimensions, they learn about the Geometric figures. When a child works with ten cubes, it represents the numbers 1-10 which is the indirect preparation of the Decimal System. These concepts are not introduced to the child directly but are absorbed by their Absorbent Mind sensorially.
Extension: Once a child masters building the tower, various extension has been presented by the teacher or created by the child himself. This helps the children with thinking skills, creativity, self-exploring skills etc.
Why is it Pink? Maria Montessori observed that Pink is the most attractive color in children at young age and hence these cubes are pink. These are just beautiful simple tower of blocks. Who wouldn’t be amazed and like to work with this iconic Pink Tower?
By Harneet Soor
February 13th, 2023