Thermic Tablets (presentation one)
What are Montessori Thermic Tablets?
The Montessori Thermic Tablets is a very interesting activity in the Sensorial area of the classroom. These tablets are made of different raw materials and are kept in a wooden box on the shelf. The box is split up into six compartments, which contains six pairs of tablets, for example, wool, slate, steel, glass, cork and felt.
Matching the Thermic Tablets
How is the first presentation done with the Thermic Tablets?
The directress asks the child to sensitize his fingers and she asks if he would like to wear a blindfold, as this activity requires us not to see what we are doing. If the child does not want to wear a blindfold, she shows him how to avert her eyes.
The directress shows the child how to unroll the floor mat vertically and shows him how to hold the box carefully with two hands. She begins by unpacking the first pair of tablets and places them randomly down the left-hand side of the mat, she then takes out the second pair of tablets and places them randomly on the right-hand side of the mat.
The directress averts her eyes to show the child that she is not looking and she feels the first tablet with her left hand, while felling the other tablets with her right hand trying to find the matching one. Once she has found the matching one she places it next to the first tablet on the left-hand side of the mat. She continues in the same manner until all of the tablets have been matched correctly.
What does the child learn when doing the first presentation with the Thermic Tablets?
The child gets further practice with matching, this activity develops the child’s discrimination of temperature, the child becomes more familiar with temperatures in his environment as well as encourages the child to concentrate.
Looking for more Montessori activities?
Here is the full list of the Montessori tasks, including Visual and Muscle Discrimination Sense activities, Tactile Sense activities, Chromatic Sense activities, Auditory Sense activities, Thermic Sense activities, Gustatory Sense activities, Baric Sense activities, Olfactory Sense activities, Stereognostic Sense activities, Geometry activities, and Algebra activities. Just click on the activity you want to learn about to go there.