Photo Gallery of montessori materials and activities.
Under 2s
These Small Humans, need activities that gain their interest AND also keep it.
Opening and Closing bottles or boxes is always a WINNER. Not only do they get to use real bottles BUT also strengthen their wrists and fingers in preparation for mark making and writing.
Practical Life
These activities help Small Humans develop “Practical Skills” needed in every day life.
Skills such as :
hand eye coordination
concentration
perseverance
getting dressed
preparation for Maths, Writing and Reading
feeding oneself
spatial awareness
Transferring
Transferring activities not only help develop children's
- concentration
- hand eye coordination
but also their "writing fingers" and wrist strength for letter formation.
You can use home items and objects to create simple activities.
Materials used :- buckets (IKEA)- glass oven dish - food colouring - pipet from (AMAZON)
Tidying Up
Ahhhhhh.. the sound of grains being poured is one loved by any Montessori teachers.
The cleaning up, not so much !
However tidying up large messes helps children develop :
- patience
- concentration
- development of the will
- hand eye coordination
- logical thinking
Simple activities to create BIG thinkers !
Sensorial Activities
Senorial Activities help children refine their senses and become more aware of their different kinds/types of environments!
The Cylinder Blocks are one of my FAV activities! So much can be taught, learned and discovered independently by the Small Humans ! The one thing I truly love about this activity is the silence it creates as Small Humans are so engaged and focused it c
Preparation for Writing
In order for children to have confidence when learning letters, writing and reading; we prepare them beforehand using various activities. Most of these activities help children gain skills needed for writing and reading. Nuts and bolts are part of the preparation for writing. Children get the satisfaction of getting their hands on real life materials they see adults using in
Reading
We teach letter sounds before names as we pronounce letter sounds when reading ! There are many stages we go through to teach and give experiences where Small Humans learn The Beginning sound, End sound and then Middle sound of words.
We do this by playing I Spy. After mastering letter sounds we introduce letter symbols, then combine symbols and sounds ( objects). Only then once a child h
Writing
Teaching letter formation only happens once a child can name and identify the letter sound confidently as well as match to objects correctly. Once this is demonstrated we use Sandpaper letters to build muscle memory of how letters are formed.
However, as explained above, preparation for writing can be done before learning letter sounds and names. These activities help Small Humans gain CON
Mathematics
As someone who hated Maths in school, learning Montessori Maths was a breath of fresh air! IT ALL SUDDENLY MADE SENSE !
This concrete to abstract way of teaching numbers and quantities is truly AMAZING ! Not to mention how beautiful the materials are !
Check out my Instagram/ Facebook posts to see how I’ve taught:
Number quantities and Symbols
Teen Quantities
Simple and Dynamic addit
Challenging children of different skills set
Montessori methods can be applied to any activity. however it's not how you can "Montessorify" an activity that is important to a child's development BUT how you can challenge each and every child involved in the activity equally.
This is one of the reasons why I love being a Montessori teacher. I'm always having to think how to challenge more than one
Confidence and Practice makes better
When children have a strength, we as Montessori teachers use their strength to help children develop in other areas.
This child loves drawing, and therefore was asked to draw pictures to make a numbers book so he could practice his number formation.
Routines /Family Time
This family's goal is to have dinner together every Friday evening.
Creating visuals for children under 10 is always helpful.
I combined this activity with practicing letter formation and the 4 times table. The children were then given the choice/challenged to draw the meal each of them will be making. As you can see, they took the challenge seriously with the end result bein