May 23, 2024

by Karen Minvielle

The pink tower is one of the most iconic materials in the Primary community. It literally stands out from all the other manipulatives since it is tall, pink, and not on the shelves with the other materials. It is eye-catching and beautiful. Diane Bauso, head of school at Creative Minds Montessori School in Auburn, New York, has written an insightful description of this material and the learning it fosters that was designed by Dr. Maria Montessori.

After reading why the pink tower is her favorite piece of Montessori material, you’ll likely want to see it being used by Counterpane’s Primary students. Over the 24 years I’ve been at Counterpane, I’ve watched multiple students mesmerized and challenged by this piece of sensorial material that takes considerable focus and skill.

The tower consists of 10 cubes of increasing size sitting atop one another, largest on the bottom to smallest at the top. A student uses two hands to carefully remove one cube at a time and places each on their work rug until all are laid out. Then the student rebuilds the tower on their rug using their observational and kinesthetic skills along with their small motor control; like many Montessori materials, the student easily discerns when they’ve made an error since it doesn’t look right or the tower falls. This work requires a willingness to experiment as well as a keen eye and steady hands! But once the tower is built, they are not done yet because the student now has to take down the tower placing one cube at a time back on their rug. The last step is to rebuild the tower back in its permanent location on its elephant stand. So the tower is actually built twice. Of course, like many Montessori manipulatives, students will often repeat the work since they enjoy it so much.

As Ms. Bauso explains, forming the pink tower “directly develops a child’s three-dimensional size discrimination, fine muscular coordination, and visual perception. It also indirectly fosters language and math skills by adding words like “large/largest”…to their vocabulary…The child also learns to compare and contrast the size of the cubes, which enhances their ability to reason and think logically, while absorbing the concepts of length, width, and height. These concepts, in turn, will eventually translate to volume, area, and algebra.”

Counterpane parents, grandparents, and caregivers are encouraged to observe students at work in order to witness this foundational work of the Primary community that is built upon in the Lower School and Upper School communities through 12th grade. Contact the front office to schedule your observation so you can be mesmerized by the work these young students do! Not a current family? Contact us for a tour by emailing info@counterpane.org or calling us at 770-461-2304.