Get Re-inspired with the Geometry Cabinet!

                              

As Montessori practitioners, we each have our favorite materials to present to the children.  And likewise, there always seems to be a material that we lose our enthusiasm for.  For me, this was the Geometry Cabinet.  As I began to really reflect on why this might be, I came to understand that I really didn’t fully appreciate how dynamic this material is!  I would like to take you on a journey with me to rediscover the Geometry Cabinet.

Let’s start with a fast refresher on the purposes of this material.  The first two are the most obvious, exposure to and seeing the differences of the plane geometric shapes. Next, we remind ourselves that the child must have concrete experiences with their hands to internalize information.  So we trace the shape insets and then the aperture over and over developing muscle memory of the form (which is another purpose of the material).  This action involves the eye, the hand, and the muscles.  The child comes to a deeper understanding of the nature of the shape by doing this. Dr. Montessori wrote in the Discovery of the Child (1972, p, 133), “There can be no doubt than an association of the kinesthetic with the visual sense is of great assistance in the perception of shapes and in the fixing of them in the memory.”  The tracing of the insets has another important function of indirectly preparing the child for writing.  They engage a three-fingered grip as he grasps the knob of the shape, uses the firmness of touch needed to use a writing implement, and practices controlling his hand and muscles to follow the contours of a shape.  The purposes address why we offer this material to the child, but there is more than they receive by interacting with it.

The geometry cabinet offers the child the keys to the geometric properties of the world that surrounds him.  “The majority of objects in the external world that confront our eyes are comparable to our plane insets” (Montessori, Discovery of the Child,1972, p. 166). As they become familiar with the shapes, we see the child start to observe them in their environment.  This material can forever change how the child sees the world around them!  No longer is a building seen as just a structure, but a cacophony of geometry!  The child sees the rectangles, squares, and triangles that unite to create the structure before them.  Dr. Montessori shared that when the child has the knowledge of the insets that they have the information to interpret his surroundings and that “he feels he knows the secrets to the world” (Discovery of the Child, 1972).

            Moving further, let’s reflect on the child’s future learning that relies on the knowledge gleaned from this material.  The first that comes to mind is the constructive triangles.  The child cannot intelligently work with those five boxes without the concrete experience with the triangles in the cabinet and knowing their names.  I have found that many adults may not feel confident with the names of the seven triangles in the Geometry Cabinet.  Revisiting that vocabulary may rekindle some interest for yourself in the material.  The child will also draw on their experience from the cabinet with the graded geometric figures and the decanomial square.  They will even see these forms in language as they work with the function of words. Moreover, these shapes are woven into the very nature of the mathematics materials. 

            Something that is unique to this material is that multiple students may be working with the Geometry Cabinet at once and in several different ways!  This is an apparatus that can be out all day long serving multiple children.  I feel that I got “stuck” with this material because I wasn’t utilizing it to its fullest potential.  I had children tracing, learning the names of the shapes, and inconsistently using the cards.  Once I refreshed myself on all of the presentations, I was able to open up a new world of experiences for the children.  The younger child should be encouraged to experience a single drawer beyond name lessons.  Why not turn this into a memory game by placing the insets at a distance and the drawer on a rug?  Could we offer a blindfold to lend a stereognostic aspect to the work?  How about facilitating a “bring me” game with the shapes from a distance? Absolutely! These activities can be done also with two, three, and more drawers at the same time.  Utilizing these exercises keeps the child returning to the cabinet with excitement! 

The card material is specifically for the child who has left those sensitive periods behind.  They have experienced the shapes concretely and is able to begin abstracting their knowledge of them.  Working with three series individually at first, the solid, thick line, and thin line cards mixed at a distance and then matched to an inset, will take time to work through, but feels like a game to the child.  Especially when paired with the guide’s enthusiasm for the work.  When we observe the child’s interest fading, could they be telling us that they need more challenge?  The final following exercise of “Which One is Missing?” may be just what he needs to reconnect with the material.  For this exercise, all of the series of cards are mixed on the rug.  Without the child looking, the guide removes a single card and sets it aside.  The child will then have to figure out a way to determine which one was removed.  This game offers an incredible amount of critical thinking, organization, and problem-solving!

            There you have it! We have revisited the purposes and the importance of the Geometry Cabinet.  We looked at the lessons that are often forgotten that can rekindle your own and the child’s interest in the material. My hope is that you feel refreshed and ready to offer some new experiences to your students with the Geometry Cabinet!