Dry Pouring

Dry Pouring, from the Practical Life area, helps children refine skills that will help them in every day life

The Guidepost Team

Dry Pouring, from the Practical Life area, helps children refine skills that will help them in every day life.

Pouring cereal into a bowl? Transferring baking soda and salt into a flour mixture? These daily tasks can seem daunting to a child, but in reality, present no problem with a little bit of practice. This is where Dry Pouring (and Wet Pouring) come in.

Dry Pouring appeals to a child’s love of materials with tiny components, such as grains of rice or small beads. They carefully pour these materials from a bigger vessel into one or more smaller containers. It’s powerful to witness when even one grain of rice spills, how carefully a child will return it to its proper place.

In the Practical Life area, there are typically several different trays for dry pouring, ranging in difficulty. As a child masters pouring large objects such as dry white beans, they will progress to pouring smaller objects into ever decreasing sizes of containers.

Having a good command over pouring both wet and dry objects will help the child with other work in the classroom. For example, washing floors or dishes requires pouring large amounts of water into a bucket to then be poured in the sink or wastewater area. This takes precision, but is no problem for a child who has already mastered pouring skills from early Practical Life materials such as Dry Pouring.

Try incorporating more ‘transferring’ type jobs at home with your child. Transferring water, or when baking, or merely just as an exercise on a tray like the one shown above.

Meet the Author

The Guidepost Team

The Guidepost Team is a group of writers and educators dedicated to helping demystify all things Montessori.

Sign up for our newsletter

Get started with our community today! Sign up for resources.

Giving your child the keys to life

Take the first step in giving your the child the gift of a Montessori education.

If you are looking to start immediately, book a school tour directly on any of our school websites by clicking Find a School. If you are not yet ready, but want to keep in touch, click the link below to subscribe to our bi-weekly Guidepost Review newsletter.

Join us on social media @guidepostmontessori to see how we are helping children and families flourish! #iamcapable

Get Started.
Fill out the form to inquire about enrolling in any of our schools. You will receive an email with information on our programs, tuition details and have the opportunity to ask questions directly with our friendly school leadership teams!