C’s first Metal Insets

The metal insets are an important part of the Montessori 3-6 curriculum, and one of the most visible in my mind. When you walk into a classroom, they really stand out. They are beautiful and inviting and inspire creativity. The youngest children don’t bring home much to show for the work they do in the classroom (expect maybe some cutting or gluing or painting). Learning the letters’ sounds, exploring the geometic solids, or learning to do practical life exercises (spooning, pouring) does not make something to bring home. But the metal insets do.

So I was surprised and pleased recently to see the first evidence of C’s work with the Montessori materials. I’m sure he does lots of important work everyday, but these metal inset tracings are the first tangible products he’s brought home. I was so excited!

This is not one of the canonical shapes we teach to children, and many people point out that it is an unusual shape to teach children. However, Dr. Montessori created the metal insets to train the child’s hand for the montions of writing. You can see how tracing half circles in a configuration like this would help get a person ready to make b’s or d’s or even e’s and y’s. It also requires a lot of control for the child to stop the pencil and turn the corner properly. It’s really quite challenging!

It looks like C started with the triangle metal inset, but only did one corner, and then drew his own triangle.

That’s a pretty good triangle, especially if it was freehand!

Apparently the trapezoid was one of my favorite shapes when I was C’s age. I probably just liked the word. I used to say “trapezoooooooooooooooooooid!”