Montessori materials

A child-height basin, small pitcher, soap dish and towel hook, or a stable step stool at the family sink.

A matched pair of small pitchers sized for a toddler's hand.

A rimmed tray that holds one activity and contains spills, sized for a child to carry with two hands.

A square wooden frame with two fabric panels joined by large buttons.

A small plain rug that marks out a child's work space on the floor.

Two small bowls and a spoon on a tray, for moving dried beans from one bowl to the other.

A hand brush and dustpan, and later a short broom, sized for a child's hands.

A basin, a pitcher, a scrub brush, a sponge, soap and a drying cloth on a tray, sized for a child washing a table.

Small square cloths with a contrasting line stitched where each fold goes: in half, in quarters, on the diagonal.

A tray of small bud vases with a pitcher and funnel to fill them, for arranging single flowers.

A crinkle cutter or blunt nylon knife and a small cutting board, sized for a child's first food preparation.

A small tray or box with a mild metal polish, an applicator, a soft cloth and a small brass or copper object.

Four wooden blocks, each holding ten knobbed cylinders that vary in diameter, height or both.

Ten pink wooden cubes from 1 cm to 10 cm on a side.

Ten brown wooden prisms, each 20 cm long, with square ends from 1 cm to 10 cm.

Ten red wooden rods of the same square section, 10 cm to 1 m long in 10 cm steps.

Small flat tablets in matched pairs and graded shades, sold as box 1 (3 pairs), box 2 (11 pairs) and box 3 (63 shades).

A hinged wooden box of eight painted blocks that build a cube.

Two boxes of six sealed cylinders, one with red lids and one with blue, graded from loud to almost silent.

Three small wooden boards of sandpaper and smooth wood: half and half, alternating strips, and strips graded fine to coarse.

A wooden chest of six drawers holding about 35 flat blue shapes in square frames, each lifted by a small knob.

A hinged wooden box of 27 painted blocks in red, blue, yellow and black that build a cube in three layers.

Ten pale blue wooden solids, from the sphere and cube to the ovoid and ellipsoid, usually with stands for the rounded ones.

An opaque cloth bag, sold empty or with small wooden solids, for naming and matching objects by touch.

Ten rods from 10 cm to 1 m, divided into alternating red and blue 10 cm segments.

Golden unit beads, ten bars, hundred squares and thousand cubes for the decimal system.

A box of small color-coded tiles marked 1, 10, 100 and 1000 for calculating with place value.

The numerals 0 to 9 cut from sandpaper and mounted on smooth boards, traced with two fingers while the name is said.

A box of ten compartments marked 0 to 9 and a basket of 45 wooden spindles, for counting loose objects and learning zero.

Two boards printed with 10 nine times and nine number cards 1 to 9 that cover the zero to make 11 to 19.

Chains of colored bead bars joined end to end: the hundred chain of ten golden bars, and a short chain for the square of each number.

A board of 100 squares, 10 by 10, with tiles numbered 1 to 100 and a control chart.

Numeral cards 1 to 10 and 55 red counters, for laying out each number's quantity in pairs.

Two wooden boards printed 10 to 90 with nine slide-in cards marked 1 to 9, for building every number from 11 to 99.

Ten frames, each holding a circle 10 cm across, whole or cut into 2 to 10 equal pieces with small knobs.

A board ruled 12 by 18 squares and numbered 1 to 18, with nine blue and nine red strips from 1 to 9 long.

Lowercase letters cut from fine sandpaper on smooth boards, consonants and vowels on different colors.

A compartment box of cut-out letters, several of each, for building words by sound.

A box of small objects with three-letter phonetic names and matching word labels.

Ten pink metal frames, each holding a blue geometric shape with a knob, for tracing and filling in with colored pencils.

Picture cards, label cards and control cards for one subject; the sets here cover the ten land and water forms.

Reading material for phonetic words with consonant blends, such as frog and flag: objects or pictures with blue labels, word lists and booklets.

Reading material for phonograms, letter groups with one sound such as sh and ee: phonogram cards with folders or booklets of words.

Nine colored shapes, one per part of speech, laid above written words: a black triangle for the noun, a red circle for the verb.

A set of eight compartment boxes and color-coded word and sentence cards, one new part of speech per box.

Cards printed with the common English words that can't be sounded out, such as said and was.

Cards or slips that each name an action for the child to read silently and carry out, from one verb to a full sentence.

The first globe: sandpaper land and smooth blue water, learned by touch.

A wooden puzzle map of the continents with a small knob on each piece.

Shallow trays shaped as paired land and water forms, such as island and lake.

A small globe with each continent painted its own color on blue oceans, the second globe after the sandpaper globe.

A small wooden chest of three or four drawers holding green leaf shapes, each in its own frame with a knob.

A small watering can, a mister, a leaf cloth and a tray, sized for a child caring for a houseplant.

Picture and label cards for sorting things into living and nonliving, used beside real objects.

Small flags on a wooden stand, sold one continent at a time or as a world set, for naming and placing on the puzzle map.

Wooden puzzles of plants and their parts, each part a separate piece with a knob.

Wooden animal puzzles, usually five from the fish to the horse, each body part a separate piece with a knob.

A wooden puzzle or a set of picture cards showing the sun and the eight planets in order.