What can a Montessori Cylinder do for your curious learner? Let’s talk about dimension discrimination, language development, and expert little pinchers!
Whether with or without knobs — the Montessori Cylinder is hands-on exploration of size and space for your 3+ year old.
I guarantee you parents here today will learn something too.
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Best Montessori Cylinders You Can Buy (Knobbed / Knobless)
“Some Montessori-Approved.
Others Montessori-Inspired.“
The Montessori knobbed cylinder inspired all kinds of developmental toys for early learners ages 1 to 5 years. Behold the best cylinder toys and peg-in-hole playthings for spatial discrimination, size comparison, and pincer grasping.
- (01) BOHS Montessori Knobbed Cylinders with Self-Correcting 6-Space Blocks
- (02) Toth Multidimensional Knobbed Cylinder Ladder Blocks (Diameter, Depth, Volume)
- (03) Unravel Marvel Waldorf Rainbow Mushrooms Picking Toy
- (04) Elite Montessori Sound Box Knobless Cylinders
- (05) New Sky Enterprises Knobless Colored Cylinders with Control Flashcards
- (06) Wooden Toys For You Primary Color Knobless Montessori Cylinder Blocks
- (07) Treemagination “Shape and Look of a Tree” Cylindrical Organic Tree Blocks
- (08) Babe Rock Color Sorting Stacking Counting Toy (Columns + Rings)
- (09) StarMall Color Recognition Montessori Peg Doll + Color Matching Toy
- (10) Xylolin Wooden Rainbow Peg Dolls Toddler Matching Toy (Color + Size)
(01) BOHS Montessori Knobbed Cylinders with Self-Correcting 6-Space Blocks
This set of cylinder blocks with knob is divided into 4 wooden blocks with holes to insert 6 cylinders of 4 colors per block:
- The block with blue cylinders varies in three dimensions: the diameter decreases while the height gradually increases.
- The block with yellow cylinders varies in one dimension: the diameter remains the same while the height decreases.
- The block with red cylinders varies in two dimensions: the diameter gradually decreases while the height remains the same.
- The block with green cylinders varies in three dimensions: both diameter and height gradually decrease.
This material teaches the child visual discrimination of dimensions, perfecting grasping, building vocabulary, categorizing sizes, counting.
The uses are multiple and it is a game suitable for children from 3 years old.
(02) Toth Multidimensional Knobbed Cylinder Ladder Blocks (Diameter, Depth, Volume)
A monochromatic version of the knobbed cylinder game. It is a wooden board with the cylinders made of the same material and color — simple natural wood.
The basis of the game is the same, the child discriminates size, shape and diameter to be able to insert the cylinders into the blocks.
The material comes with 4 blocks with 5 cylinders in each one.
Through observation, logical reasoning, analysis and other forms of thinking, this resource helps children learn to reason and draw conclusions.
- Block 1: Cylinders vary in one dimension: Diameter remains constant, height increases.
- Block 2: Cylinders vary in one dimension: Diameter increases, height remains constant.
- Block 3: Cylinders vary in two dimensions: Diameter increases, height increases.
- Block 4: Cylinders vary in two dimensions: Diameter increases, height decreases.
It is presented to the child in segments, so that he/she can understand that each block has a different difficulty.
The pieces and cylinders are suitable for use from 3 years of age.
(03) Unravel Marvel Waldorf Rainbow Mushrooms Picking Toy
This wooden trunk with mushrooms is a charming toy that mixes Montessori and Waldorf trends. Everything is lovingly handmade and its pieces are so delicate that in addition to being an educational resource, it can serve as a decoration for a child’s room.
The game comes with a wooden trunk with 8 holes where 8 mushrooms of different sizes and heights are inserted. It is the perfect toy to expand children’s imagination, improve hand-eye coordination and learn about colors, sizes and dimensions. Suitable for children from 2 years old.
(04) Elite Montessori Sound Box Knobless Cylinders
Cylinder boxes with sounds is a very useful resource because it allows children to sharpen their hearing through the different sounds presented by each of the cylinders.
The game is divided into two boxes of red and blue, with 6 cylinders in each one. The cylinders are identified by color to segment them in the boxes, and the sound intensity when shaking each one, goes from lower to higher.
In addition to sharpening the ear, it allows to practice concentration, memorization and categorization. The boxes are 6 x 9 x 5 inches and it is a resource that can be used from 36 months to 10 years old.
(05) New Sky Enterprises Knobless Colored Cylinders with Control Flashcards
The colored cylinders with guide cards are an extraordinary game. A resource that has many ways to work on concentration and motor skills in children.
This version brings 4 groups with 5 cylinders in the scale of blue, red, yellow and green, without knobs, which allows stacking them to form towers.
The purpose of the game is that through the guide cards, a drawing with overlapping cylinders is presented, at that point, the child must recreate a tower with what he has just observed. The yellow cylinders vary in height and width. The shortest cylinder is the thinnest and the tallest cylinder is the thickest. The red Cylinders are the same height, but vary in width. The blue cylinders have the same width, but vary in height and the green cylinders vary in height and width. The shortest cylinder is the thickest and the tallest cylinder is the thinnest. The child can do a variety of exercises with these materials, including combining them with the cylinder blocks, stacking them on top of each other to form a tower, and arranging them in different sizes or patterns. When the yellow, red and green cylinders are placed on top of each other, they are all the same height.
The game is made of wood and comes with 6 activity guide cards; suitable for children from 3 years old.
(06) Wooden Toys For You Primary Color Knobless Montessori Cylinder Blocks
This set of wooden boxes with cylinders Montessori handmade and with non-toxic paints, is a very complete alternative because each color block brings 10 cylinders. The yellow set: the height and the diameter of the cylinders decrease. The green set: the diameter decreases as the height increases. The red set: the diameter decreases as the height remains constant and the blue set: the height decreases as the diameter remains constant.
They are presented to the child to sort them by size and shape, being able to practice the conceptualization of volume. You can group them by category, by color, make towers in ascending or descending scale. All these activities encourage concentration and hand-eye coordination, in addition to enriching vocabulary.
(07) Treemagination “Shape and Look of a Tree” Cylindrical Organic Tree Blocks
A set of 15 cylinders of natural fallen branches with natural finish and soft touch, all finished by hand, to recreate a very useful monochromatic game with variations to the traditional game of cylinders without knobs.
The 15 cylinders come in different sizes, in height and thickness, and more than a sorting game, it will allow you to create structures and towers with the single most valuable resource in children: imagination.
(08) Babe Rock Color Sorting Stacking Counting Toy (Columns + Rings)
A great toy to introduce spatial relationships, sorting, hand coordination patterns for children 1 1/2 years and up. Includes 32 pieces (16 pegs and 16 stackable rings) plus the pegboard. Everything is made of wood with non-toxic material and very colorful colors.
The stacking rings teach children simple addition and subtraction between 0 and 16, learning colors and numbers. It is also an ideal toy for baby to improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
(09) StarMall Color Recognition Montessori Peg Doll + Color Matching Toy
It is a set of classification of the pawns by color scale. Very interesting resource to teach children the color gradations.
It has 4 groups of boards with the division of the color in 4 tones, and thus to be able to classify the pawns with their corresponding color.
The color category is: yellow, blue, red and green. The pawns and holes are the same size, here the practice is on the color. In other words, it is a matching and sorting game that uses shades of color to develop skills in visual perception and color discrimination.
(10) Xylolin Wooden Rainbow Peg Dolls Toddler Matching Toy (Color + Size)
A game of sorting dolls type cylinders that the little ones like very much. It comes in a solid wooden box, where 9 dolls of different thicknesses and sizes are inserted in the shape of cylinders in rainbow colors.
There are multiple ways to play, for example for color and shape recognition. The classification of dolls, by the way they fit into the holes. Encourage hand-eye coordination, development of fine motor skills, creativity and imagination.
Perfect to introduce to children from 3 years and up.
What are Montessori Knobbed Cylinders?
They are materials made of wood, which are presented in the form of cylinders of different thicknesses and sizes, which allow to work multiple skills in children through manipulation and visualization, where each of them must fit into a box with holes arranged in sizes and thicknesses for this purpose.
Thanks to the cylinders with or without buttons, we introduce different words such as thick, thin, tall, short, narrow, fat, big, small, comparatives and superlatives, so we also teach and work the linguistic part.
As it is a self-corrective material, children can see immediately if they have made a mistake to fit them or classify them, without the need for an adult to tell them what is wrong. It will be the child himself who corrects his mistake and learns both to make mistakes and to continue practicing.
What do Montessori Cylinders teach my child?
On the one hand, the use of the cylinders teaches fine motor skills that are worked on when children do “the pincer” to pick up the cylinders through the knob with their index finger and thumb. If they are very young, they will work on a more extended fine motor skills, since they will pick up the cylinder by grasping it with their hand, but it is also an advance in the precision and handling of the hand.
In addition, children work and improve their visual-motor coordination when they have to place each cylinder in its hole. Aspects such as seriation and order are worked on; and, also, the logic that will be of great value in learning areas such as mathematics or language.
While the children are playing with the cylinders and trying to discover where each one should go, they also work on attention, concentration, autonomy and self-confidence and their ability to learn.
“Knobbed vs Knobless” – What’s the difference?
Montessori cylinders are classified into two types: with knob and without knob.
Although the principle seems the same because both are cylinders to fit and classify, there are clear differences.
Knobbed cylinders allow for a fine pincer grasp that will make it effortless to practice the child’s pencil grip for writing. Cylinders without a knob must be grasped with three fingers or with the child’s whole hand and other areas of fine and gross motor skills are practiced.
The knobbed cylinders come for inserting into holes of different thicknesses and sizes, while the knobless cylinders, in addition to being able to be inserted into holes without any of their parts sticking out, can be used as a resource for stacking and making towers from tallest to shortest at different heights.
The use of cylinders with knobs is intended for a box with holes classification, and cylinders without knobs can be presented on a board with holes or come in colored boxes without holes, to group them by color and classify them within the same box without segmentation.
It will be important to identify what we are going to work with the children, to be able to choose one or the other.
On the other hand, there are activities that if you have both cylinders, work together performing more complex actions in young children, from 3 years old.
