Color above all, perhaps even more than drawing, is a liberation. MILLECOLOUR TUBES TO LEARN WITH THE MONTESSORI METHOD

Henri-Emile Matisse

If your child still has some difficulty recognizing and distinguishing colors, you can help him with the Montessori-inspired millecolour tube panel , an activity designed specifically to stimulate the learning of colors.

Making it at home is very simple : you will only need some low-cost materials and a little imagination!

Here is what you need to prepare:

• cardboard tubes (rolls of paper towels or toilet paper are fine)
• tempera colors, preferably non-toxic
• vinyl glue
• a backing carton
• various types of objects in the colors corresponding to the chosen tempera (we used pompons )

Color each tube with gouache paints. To begin with, you can choose the primary colors, and later on prefer the secondary and tertiary colors; or again you can try a work on shades, for example by proposing the pair light green / dark green, blue / light blue, etc.

Let the paint dry for a few hours and then glue the tubes side by side on the thick cardboard support.

When everything is well fixed, make available to the child various types of objects (balls, pom poms, Lego constructions) of the colors corresponding to those chosen to color the tubes.

The game will consist in inserting the object of the same color inside each tube.

Initially, you can let the child play freely, without letting the difference between the colors be observed. The fun will consist in seeing the object disappear inside the tube and then reappear noisily on the floor. Next, you can guide the activity by saying the name of the color as the child enters the object. Slowly, repeating the gesture many times will begin to correctly associate the colors with great satisfaction!

Like all other Montessori activities, even the millecoloured tube panel helps the little ones to grow autonomously and independently, allowing them to experience on their own, little by little, the everyday world that surrounds them!