Montessori thermic materials are great for any time of the year. Of course, an extra focus in winter or summer makes sense, since there’s an extra focus on temperature in those seasons already.
Thermic bottles and thermic tablets are traditional Montessori sensorial materials. For most homeschools and other schools, thermic bottles can be prepared without buying a special set. You just need to fill matching small glasses or bottles with different temperatures of water. Thermic tablets are more difficult to make yourself, although it’s possible, and there are variations that work well as an alternative for home use.
Here are some ideas for inexpensive and DIY thermic materials and activities:
Where to Purchase Inexpensive Thermic Tablets
If you’d like to purchase thermic tablets for home use, there are a number of inexpensive options:
Amazon (affiliate link):
Here’s a more thorough list of Montessori material suppliers along with comments from parents who purchased from various companies: Where to Buy Montessori Materials.
DIY Thermic Materials and Activities
MontHome made thermal bottles using film bottles.
Thermic Bottle Cozy (from Sew Liberated – Formerly Montessori By Hand)
If you like to knit, you’ll love the thermic bottle cozy tutorial from Sew Liberated, formerly Montessori By Hand. Adjusted for size, it would work well for any type of bottles you used.
Source: desertcrafter.blogspot.com via Deb on Pinterest
Desert Crafter made a version of thermic tablets by using various objects to introduce temperature. You might want to have your child match thermic bottles and skip the actual thermic tablets by using Desert Crafter’s activity as an alternative.
For MANY more DIY Montessori materials, see my DIY Montessori Materials post.
Thermic Presentation Ideas
Thermic Bottles from Montessori Primary Guide
Thermic Tablets from Montessori Primary Guide
Thermic Bottles from Wikisori
Thermic Tablets (Photo from The Materials Company of Boston)
Thermic Tablets from Wikisori
Thermic Tablet Activity (Photo from To the Lesson)
Thermic Tablet Activity from To the Lesson!
Montessori Thermic Tablets Lesson Activity from Montessori Helper
“Two children working with the thermic tablets in a Montessori early childhood classroom”
Thermic Sense presentations from Basic Montessori Learning Activities for Under-Fives
Kids’ Winter Activities Pinterest Board
In addition to lots of winter activities in general, you’ll find sensory experiences with cold on my Kids’ Winter Activities Pinterest Board. Many of the sensorial experiences would be awesome introductions to a more structured presentation on temperature.
Have you introduced any thermic activities lately?
Montessori Monday Link-Up
If you have some Montessori activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. It’s fine to link up a post from your archives – and you may link up anytime during the week! Your post may be any Montessori-inspired activity or idea. It doesn’t need to be related to my Montessori Monday post.
Link up your exact post URL so that we can find your activity if we return to the linky at a later date (which I often do when I’m looking for activities for a roundup post). I publish the Montessori Monday post and linky at 6:00 a.m. EST each Monday and keep the linky open throughout the week.
Please place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post. Let’s use Montessori Monday to gain inspiration/ideas and to encourage each other! If you would leave an encouraging comment on the post linked up ahead of you (along with any other posts you’re drawn to), that would be awesome! Thanks for participating!
Notes:
You’ll find a Pinterest Pinning Party in our Living Montessori Now Community (featured on the welcome page). That’s for any kid-related posts whether they’re Montessori-inspired or not. Please feel free to add posts there as well! (If you join our Living Montessori Now Community, your blog feed (post excerpts) will show up on the Living Montessori Now Community Welcome Page if you add your blog link when you sign up. It’s an easy way to get extra attention for your blog posts.)
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Oh, a great round up of resources as always!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Thanks, Carrie! Thermic materials aren’t as commonly known as many of the other sensorial materials. It was fun to see what was available online. 🙂