The sensorial materials are used for discriminating size, shape, colour, sounds, smells and tastes etc.  Each activity isolates and highlights a particular quality.  Precise terminology is given and its own control of error allows the child to correct his/her mistakes. There are sensorial keys to provide links in the future work in areas of mathematics, language, geography, botany, zoology, etc. All materials have indirect preparation and isolation of the difficulty, separate skills are learnt prior to tackling a more complicated activity.

The general aim of all activities in the early years is to provide the child with keys to the world around him/her.  The materials provide the child with concrete experiences to help him/her classify the impressions he/she receives from his/her senses.  The aim of the materials is an inner one - mainly that the child trains him/herself to observe:  that he/she is led to make comparisons between objects, to reason and decide.  The child is encouraged to use precise terminology to explore and to classify through the use of materials graded from the simple to the more complex.  The objective is not the transmission of knowledge for its own sake but rather the development of learning skills as resources upon which the child can draw in mastering his/her environment.