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Engage Your Montessori Students with an Interactive Baric Tablets Learning Activity

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The Montessori Baric Tablets with Box continue the child’s development of the haptic sense. In Montessori sensorial education, baric tablets are a material used to help children develop their sense of weight and refine their ability to discriminate between different weights.

Baric tablets consist of a set of wooden or metal tablets that vary in weight but are all the same size and shape. The purpose of the baric tablets is to assist children in refining their sense of touch and understanding the concept of weight.

Montessori Sensorial Baric Tablets

What does Baric mean in Montessori?

In Montessori education, the term “baric” refers to the concept of weight or heaviness. The word “baric” comes from the Greek word “baros,” which means weight or pressure. In the Montessori sensorial materials, such as the baric tablets, the focus is on developing the child’s ability to discriminate and understand differences in weight.

The baric tablets, for example, consist of a set of tablets that are identical in size and shape but vary in weight. They are used to help children refine their sense of touch and develop their ability to perceive and discriminate between different weights. By engaging with the baric tablets, children gain a deeper understanding of weight as they explore and compare the tablets’ varying heaviness.

The use of baric materials in the Montessori classroom aims to provide children with concrete experiences that support their sensory development and refine their discrimination skills. Through activities with the baric tablets and similar materials, children develop their ability to observe and compare weight differences, enhancing their understanding of this sensory attribute.

Montessori Baric Tablets

Baric Tablets - Montessori Sensorial Lesson

There are many variations and extensions for this work. The Baric Tablets lesson is outlined below.

“Would you like me to show you the baric tablets?”

Baric Tablets - Montessori Sensorial Lesson

  • Go to the sensorial area: “These are the baric tablets. Can you say baric tablets? Baric means weight.
  • Place the box in the center of the work area. Remove the box lid and place in the upper left

How do you present Baric tablets Montessori?

The Baric Tablets Lesson: Presentation I

Baric Tablets - Montessori Sensorial Lesson
  • Remove a heavy, a medium and a light tablet with a 3-finger-grip of the dominant hand
  • Let the child feel each tablet before removing the next: “Heaviest. Medium. Lightest.
  • Would you like to feel how heavy this is? Now feel how heavy this tablet is. Now this one.” The child weighs each tablet & returns.
  • Place them randomly in a horizontal line.
Baric Tablets - Montessori Sensorial Lesson
  • “I’m going to try to find the heaviest.”
  • Pick up the left tablet with the right hand and transfer to the left hand.
  • Weigh 5 or 6 times.  Put it down.
  • Feel the other tablets in the same manner.
  • Move the heaviest to the lower left: “This is the heaviest.”
  • “Now I am going to find the lightest.”
  • Check the remaining and move the lightest to the right.
  • Move the medium tablet in the center of the two.
Baric Tablets - Montessori Sensorial Lesson
  • Touch each tablet in turn:
  • “This is heavy wood. This is light wood. This is medium wood.”
  • Show the child how to mix up the tablets by mixing them up and then moving them into a horizontal line.
  • This presentation can be repeated blindfolded or by looking away: “I am going to use my hands to do this work.” Encourage the child to do the same.

The Baric Tablets Lesson: Presentation II and Beyond

  • Add one of each of the three tablets at each presentation until the child can sort all.
  • You did that sorting well. Now I am going to make a stack of two medium, two heavy, and two light tablets to sort. Would you like to try it or do you want me to do it first?
Baric Tablets - Montessori Sensorial Lesson
  • Ask the child if she would like to do the work blindfolded (or by looking away).
  • If the child would like to do the work, blindfold, and then make a stack of tablets.
  • Give the tablets to the child one at a time to make heavy, medium, and light piles.
  • When the three piles are formed have the child feel each one in the pile to make certain they are the same.
  • Are you ready to take your blindfold off and check?”
  • Alternatively (above), present by matching pairs blindfolded (or by looking away). Stack two tablets to make a matching pair. Then ask the child to feel, and recheck.
  • Return tablets to the box, replace the lid, and return them to the shelf.

Through the exploration of baric tablets, children engage their sense of touch and develop a more refined understanding of weight differences. They learn to discriminate and order objects based on weight, understand the concept of heaviest to lightest or vice versa, and develop their sense of weight.

By providing concrete materials like baric tablets, the Montessori approach promotes hands-on learning experiences, sensory discrimination, and observation skills. Children develop their fine motor skills, tactile perception, and an appreciation for the subtle differences in the physical properties of objects.

Best,
Marnie

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