Highland Montessori School

In a Montessori classroom, many materials on the shelves come and go, but one of the staple materials in our classroom is the Metal Insets.

Earlier this month, some of our five & six year old students started making books about the solar system using the Metal Insets. They used the circle inset for the planets and free hand for meteors. Because of these beautiful solar system books, the Metal Insets became a hit that attracted the interest of many of the four year olds and younger and, last week we observed many kids working constantly with them to make different pictures and books.

This wonderful Montessori material has its own customized shelf. The metal stencils come in ten shapes; Square, Circle, Triangle, Rectangle, Pentagon, Oval, Ellipse, Trapezoid, Curvilinear, and a Quatrefoil. Each shape has two parts: a pink frame and a blue inset.

The beauty of this work comes from its expansive and adaptable range of use for each age. The very young use the pink frames to make the shapes. The frames help the containment and control of the pencil as the very young hand is learning the hold the pencil and strengthen the fine motor of fingers, hands, and wrists. It also helps with eye-hand coordination and crossing the mid-line.

4- and 5-year olds will use the blue insets to fine-tune their pencil grip. Here, pushing against the insets instead of the depending on the boarders of the frame gives the children the The triangle inset or frame was used to begin this stripey design.ability to realize that making lines and shapes is within their control.

The Metal Instes are considered a language work, because it’s a precursor to writing; it trains the eye to discriminate and the hand to control the writing tool. However, it certainly goes beyond language, making an impression on the other Montessori areas (practical life, math, and sensorial) as well.