The materials develop skills such as exploration, observation, order, questioning and speculation. The children are sensorial explorers and engage with the environment through their senses. In the Montessori environment, children explore and experience the carefully designed sensorial materials using their sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, to learn about the world in which they live. Hands on experience with the material leads to understanding of concepts and classifications such as size, shape, colour, sound (loud or soft) and pitch (high or low), texture, temperature, weight, taste and smells.
Experiences provided are only keys to exploring the world, a means for understanding and building a foundation for future learning. Precise language is given to the child using the concepts embedded in the sensorial materials.
The material is presented in a specific way or pattern: the child begins by learning to match the similar things, followed by grading the material based on its quality, and then learning the language related to the concept. Presenting the material in this way, allows the child to fully understand the concept embedded in the activity.