What Qualities Make a Good Sensory Material?

Any material that combines areas of learning grabs my attention. Plus, I am always looking for unique materials combining my love for Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia. Material that self-corrects and allows the child to work problem solving and logic skills without too much guidance from me is a sure thing. So what are the best qualities for sensory materials?

 Uncommon Goods sponsored this post. All opinions are 100% my own.

Best Qualities for Sensory Materials

When I consider placing structure around my sons' sensory learning, I think carefully about what characteristics are key for the materials. Here are a few ideas:

• Beautifully made
• Uncluttered to the eye and to the touch
• Achieve an aim such as organizing the visual sense with a material such as the pink tower,
  the tactile sense with a material such as the rough/smooth tablets, or auditory sense with the sound bottles
• Simultaneously work two or more of the senses while isolating one quality such as with material like doing the brown stair with a blindfold

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We recently had the pleasure of getting our hands on a beautiful, colorful product from Uncommon Goods that achieves all of the above. Prismania Blocks are a unique sensorial material, the perfect addition for home and classroom.

Skills Worked with Prismania Blocks

• Sensorial
• Fine Motor
• Pre-Math
• Focus
• Independence
• Confidence
• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving

Prismania Blocks are great for home and for the classroom. It is perfect pre-sensorial work for younger children but also one that engages the older child’s mind working math and critical thinking skills. The beautiful and colorful aspects to this material ignite the child’s desire to be imaginative and creative with the material. Beyond building the cubes and placing the parts into the wooden holder, below are a few ideas:

We also reviewed Uncommon Goods Mix and Match Career Blocks. The boys enjoyed this material. The blocks provoked interesting discussion about “what they want to be when they grow up” and even conversation about gender in professions. Pretty great for a 5 and 3.5-year-old!

Extensions

• Free play
• Match colors
• Grade tones (a la Montessori's color tablets work)
• Name colors
• Name shapes (e.g. triangular prism and cube)
• Engineering testing
• Put together with a blindfold
• Partner work

We truly adore our new Sensorial Material. The boys continue to go back to the blocks, and invite their friends, as young as one year and as old as 6.5 years, to explore the material. Definitely a win for the home and for the classroom.

Below I have listed a few more materials we love from Uncommon Goods.  There are many perfect gifts for kids on their website. Go ahead, check them out!

I hope you enjoyed this post today! Thanks again to Uncommon Goods, the sponsor of this post. Tell me your favorite material!