DIY Montessori Sound Cylinders

Sound cylinders are used in Montessori education as a sensorial material at the primary (ages 3-6) level. They help the child refine their auditory senses. The cylinders look the same except for the red and blue tops, so they isolate the sense of hearing. The child will initially match the sounds of the cylinders by shaking them and finding the two that have the same sound. There are also extension activities with the sound cylinders.

Sound cylinders are an easy DIY if you are homeschooling your child or want to do sensorial work. I could not find cylinders, but I did find small boxes at Michael's that were 99 cents each. This project took me less than 10 minutes (most of the time I was searching for items to place in the boxes and I burned my finger on the hot glue once, so you can easily do it under 10 minutes)! It is cheap, quick (less than $10), looks great, and all of the items in the boxes are things I found around my house.

For this project, you need the following:

• 8+ (even number) similar small boxes, cylinders, containers
• Hot glue and hot glue gun
• Markers, paint (I did red and blue acrylic paint), 2 small paintbrushes
• Non-perishable items from your house

 Next, I marked the bottom of the boxes with a small dot - one color for 2 boxes. This helps to remind me which ones match as well as control for the child to see if they are correct.

After that, I went to my pantry to see what I could find to place in the boxes. I wanted sounds of varying grades - from soft to loud. I made sure that none of them sounded the same. I chose sugar, uncooked rice, uncooked pasta (rotini), and coins. Don't fill the containers too much because you want the items to move around and make noise.

Then I glued the tops back on to the boxes. I put a small dab of hot glue on the very top of each side of the box and put the top back on. The tops are pretty tight fitting, so it worked really well. My only mishap is that, since the boxes are a heavy paper material, the sugar was coming out of one of them when I shook it. I just put some hot glue all around the edge of the top to keep the sugar inside. I did not do this for all the other boxes because it was not necessary.

Ready to be painted!

The final step was to paint the tops. This is done so the child can place the boxes back in their groups after finishing the activities. One red box matches one blue box. It makes presentation easier (so I don't have to look at the bottom of the boxes) as well as an aid to put the material back on the shelf as it was.

Ready for the shelf!

I hope my son will enjoy these. I will present them to him tomorrow morning! :-)