How to Teach Building and Balance Using Montessori Knobless Cylinders

This is a complete set of knobless cylinders.

The montessori knobless cylinders lesson teaches young children about building and balance while encouraging them to draw visual comparisons and refine their coordination. The knobless cylinders are four sets of cylinders that vary in different dimensions. The first set varies by height and diameter with the tallest cylinder also being the thickest. The second also varies by height and diameter, but the tallest is the thinnest. The third set varies only by diameter, with all being the same height, and the fourth varies only by height, with all being the same diameter.

Things You'll Need

• Set of montessori knobless cylinders
• Large green floor mat

Instructions

1. Introduce the cylinders to the child. When a child first encounters the knobless cylinders, she should be working with an instructor and only using the first set. Remove all of the cylinders in the set from their box, and place them randomly on a floor mat in front of the child.

2. Use the first set of cylinders to build a tower. Slowly and deliberately, select the largest, thickest cylinder and place it in front of the child. Do not say anything. After a moment of clear deliberation, select the second largest cylinder and place it concentrically on top of the first cylinder. Continue to do this either until you have build a complete tower or the child takes over. The child can continue building with the first set of cylinders on his own.

3. Demonstrate dismantling the tower. Once you have completed the tower for the first time, show how the cylinders can also be removed with careful movements and placed on the ground. This will help keep the classroom quiet and orderly as well as preventing loss of teaching tools when the tower is knocked down and scattered.

4. Demonstrate grading to the child. As before, the cylinders should be randomly placed on the mat. You should select the tallest of the cylinders or the largest, depending on what set you are working with, and place it to the left. Then, after clear consideration, line up the second largest cylinder to the right of the largest one. You should continue until all the cylinders are graded or the child takes over.

5. Allow the student to work independently. Once introduced to the knobless cylinders, the child should work independently on grading and tower building. As you feel she is ready, you can allow her to work with multiple sets of cylinders. The lessons are largely self-correcting because an improperly build tower--one that does not have a large base and incrementally dwindling diameters of cylinder on top of this base--will topple.

6. Encourage them to build with all four sets when they are ready. Most children understand that the lessons they learned with the first set of cylinders can be applied to the rest of the sets. However, you may wish to sit down and introduce each set as the child becomes comfortable working with the preceding set. A child can use each set individually or group them together. They are generally color coded so it is not likely that they will become mixed up.

Tips & Warnings

• Knobless cylinders can also be used to teach comparative vocabulary, but not until the child has mastered the physical manifestations of these comparisons by building solid towers and grading the cylinders appropriately.