Lockdown Day 26 – EOS – Textures in nature
Education of the Senses
What a delightful coincidence that we are looking at education through the senses today on World Creativity and Innovation Day! This day is seen as a placeholder in time to give people a reason and opportunity to use their imaginations productively and to release new thinking.
Montessori also viewed this curriculum area as one that allowed for the development of creativity and the imagination. She spoke about the Sensorial materials being ‘materialised abstractions’ – abstract (imaginative) concepts in a material form.
Children need concrete and manipulative experiences, taken in through the senses, to lay a foundation of knowledge that they can later think about creatively in their imaginations to innovate new thoughts, ideas, and creations.
* EXPLORING THE TACTILE SENSE *
One of our main senses is the tactile sense – our sense of touch. Sense impressions are taken in mostly by the hand, which Montessori viewed as ‘the instrument of the mind’.
Consider how you would explain the meaning of ‘rough’, ‘smooth’, ‘coarse’, ‘bumpy’ etc to someone who has never had this experience before. It is almost impossible!
Let’s spend some time today exploring the tactile sense in the environment around us. Lots of opportunities for language (and adjective) development!
Below, you will find a list of tactile adjectives to start you off. You may wish to write them down and create a checklist, or a ‘Bingo’ board to check off the experiences once you have found these in your environment!
bumpy / chilly / coarse / cold / cool / cuddly / damp / dry / dusty / firm / fleshy / fluffy / furry / fuzzy / gritty / hairy / hard / lumpy / prickly / rough / rubbery / sandy / silky / slippery / smooth / soft / solid / spiky / spongy / sticky / stiff / warm / wet / wooly
What other words can you come up with?
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