baric chests - what I made this week

I have had these DIY Montessori baric chests half put together for a little too long, it was about time to finish them up! These are completely inspired by this post from the wonderful blog Smiling like Sunshine.

These baric chests, like the baric tablets, require the child to focus on sorting the material based on one sensorial aspect, in this case weight. Each Montessori sensorial material targets one sense, this allows the child to work on refining that particular sense in a specific and isolated manner. By working with all the different sensorial materials the child has the opportunity to develop the ability to not only focus on certain types of sensory input, but also to notice and be aware of subtle differences in the world around them.

They were pretty simple to make. I picked up the unpainted boxes at the craft store and I used a kitchen scale to keep my measurements accurate. I filled them with the most random assortment of things I found around the house. I found a difference of about four ounces to be a clear and noticeable change in weight between the chests.

I decided to make a red set and blue set since that is how many of our current sensorial materials are arranged, for each red chest, there is a matching blue chest. I used liquid watercolors, and like in the pervious what I made the week post, the watercolor does not absorb perfectly, but it is okay. I may give them a quick coat of sealer once I take everything to school (which is soon!).

What’s in the boxes?

empty – about 1.5 oz.
Self hardening clay – 5 oz.
Small screws with self hardening clay packed on top – 9 oz.
Pennies (with bubble wrap pushed in the top so the pennies don’t rattle) – 13 oz.

Since I am going to use these in my class, I used strong wood glue all around the lid and a drop of superglue on the hinge (and my fingers).