Posts related to Montessori Activities:
Creating a Kid Friendly Kitchen
Montessori Fine Motor Skills Strengthening
Thrift Store Treasure Makes Good Practical Life Material
Montessori Inspired Practical Life Activity
Exploring the Senses (homemade fabric matching, sound boxes, smelling bottles, tasting activity)
New transferring activities
Just thought I’d share some of the pictures of the montessori type things I have made/or purchased fairly inexpensively for my dds. The girls love them.
For my 4 and 6 year old
Homemade bead stairs (one set, 1-9, now I just need 9 more sets).
Sight word bead chains. Okay, this really isn’t a montessori concept, but I was inspired by the bead stairs and my 4.5 year old is learning to read. I am in the process of making all 111 sight words my 6 year old got from school and making them into word chains. I think this is a much more fun way of learning sight words and making sentences than using flash cards.
For the preschooler/toddler
Sensorial activities –
color “tablets”
touch tablets with different grits of sandpaper – I will be affixing these to scraps of wood and adding at least two more different grit sizes.
thermic tablets – purchased from Kidadvance montessori
Colored geometric forms (from Guidecraft)
Practical life
Our montessori drawer (in their reach, but I don’t have space to have all this stuff out in a real montessori room).
There are Polish hand carved and stained eggs in there. They don’t really serve any purpose, except they are wonderful to feel and use with their play kitchen (but I mostly keep them out of general play). The bamboo spoons and hand carved african animals are from Montessori Services
transferring beans and dry pouring rice
Mortar and pestle
Dd1 helped me grind some spices tonight for dinner
Pouring water
Sorting beads
A russian nesting doll
These are pix of our color mixing activity. Just prior to mixing the colors, we did a water transfer activity using two cups – one full and one empty.
This is a simple transfer activity with toast tongs
Opening and closing activities
As inspired by this activity from Montessori Services
Free Montessori Printables
Montessori Links
Montessori Mom Links of the Day
My Montessori Journey
Chasing Cheerios
The Wonder Years 
Fantastic! I love all of the natural, wooden stuff. The eggs are great! Nice assortment of activities!
Thank you. I really liked all that you have for your children too. I’m not homeschooling per se, but I do love all the sensorial and practical life activities that Montessori has. My kids enjoy them too.
Had I been more careful when I was a child, I would have taken better care of the items I personally brought back from a trip to Poland I went on when I was 10 with my grandmother. I had a hand carved box with a hidden, sliding piece that kept it shut, a hand painted turtle necklace made from wood and leather, but I never knew what became of them. I do have a Matroyshka I had gotten, but it has become brittle (it was 20 years old), faded, and my girls stepped on a few pieces and broke them. I should go ask my grandmother if she wouldn’t mind letting me have a few other things we brought back on that trip (now that I know how to take better care of things).
He he, we think alike. I have similar resources and activities to you that I did when the girls were a bit younger. The rice play and mixing colours they really loved – we made coloured pictures with the droppers on the paper towel.
I really like you site but I didn’t want to be seen as copying it – although I would have if I thought I could get away with it (LOL). Its simple, clean, with lots of pictures and appropriate, useful activities. I’ll be back.
Great work!
Hey, isn’t imitation the greatest form of flattery? Thanks for the positive feedback. And I always love having things organized (I wish I can always say I’m really organized IRL, but I can be a messie when I’ve got lots of projects going). When I first started out trying to decide what enrichment activities I wanted to provide, I always looked for pictures. I’m a very visual learner and I like seeing pictures to get inspiration. I know there are others looking for ideas. The question “what kinds of activities are good for kids at ___ age?” are always being asked on message boards. But having visual aids always inspires me, and I’d like to inspire others too.
Just want to say I’m a mom with three children(all grown) who all were Montessori led!I so totally believe in the importance of the years 2.5 through 6 that I’ve given up opportunities to teach beyond those years through high school and am dedicating my time now to this age (pre-school) I started my own school last spring in my home with two little girls. I must say it has been great! ..but…..hard to get the word out to parents with a small publicity budget!!! It has been so successful with the girls but I need more students to keep going or I may have to stop my program.So, if you know anyone in Nashville who wants a small ,very high quality Montessori setting (if they can’t be home and have to work) I am it!It is in my home in a beautiful sunny space!
I trained in London, England and for one year indulged in the Montessori theory and practice for primary age and have lots of experience in raising children and creative teaching within the arts of music,movement and art.(M.A. NYU NYNY 1997)
So happy to read your post! my contact info is here or
montessorinthecity@gmail.com Keep inspiring! K.B.
Ooooooooohhh, the fabric matching activity is a great one. I’d never thought of that one. I’m fairly new to Montessori anyway and am just now starting to build my own activities.
I had a lot of fun doing that one and all of the fabrics are from remnants that were discounted at Joann’s and Hancock fabrics before they closed some of their stores. I love love love the different textures.
hi, just wanna say thank you for the pics posted! i borrowed the pom-pom idea for the ‘tonging’ activities I am doing with my 2yo. for the past few days, the very first thing she wants to do when she is awake, is to reach out for the tongs and pom-poms! 🙂
Just love these ideas, can’t wait to try them, thanks!!
Carolyn –
When my youngest was a toddler, she LOVED the pom-poms too!
Angela – I’m glad you enjoyed the ideas, I’m going to be adding more soon!
Can you explain a bit more to me about how you did the colored water and droppers? We have done plain water and droppers and I tried the colored water but she kind of just made mud right away.
Angela – Maybe you can use two of the same kind of containers for blue and yellow, and a different container for the third, and guide her hands a few times.
Or alternately, you can do something like this:
http://www.examiner.com/x-15855-Huntsville-Education-Activities-Examiner~y2009m7d12-Discoverybased-learning.
If she makes mud, that’s okay. It’s less about the end product, and more about the droppering/fine motor skills at first.
Thanks, I tried it again with blue yellow and clear and she was really excited. I think I will just work up to all 3 colors. We got a bunch of green and red grapes on sale this weekend and I cut up cheese cubes and used skewers like you had pictured for patterns. When we were done we had lunch!
Hmmm….that’s a great idea. I’ll have to do that one next. We used the fruit skewers afterward and dipped the fruit in vanilla yogurt, yummy!
Great ideas, I can adapt and build from many of your examples! You have the wheels turning in my head. The kids will really enjoy the sensory stuff too!
Rachel – I’m glad I’m inspiring some new ideas for you.
That’s what I love about the internet – being able to get inspiration for lots of things the kids end up having fun with and learn from.
I’ll have to keep an eye out to see what you end up doing. 🙂
I love your blog. Thank you for all the wonderful ideas. You’ve made being a mom so much fun.
Becky –
Thank you for the lovely comment. It’s so wonderful to know that people enjoy coming here to see what we are we do.
Your ideas are awesome,will definitely try it with my kids.Thanks