Everyone wants the best for their kids, and when it comes to education, Montessori is at the top. But there’s no reason that the learning has to stay within the walls of the Montessori school. Using items you already have at home, you can create these five Montessori activities to get your little one working and playing anytime.
1. Salt Drawing
Materials needed: a few cups of salt, a shallow plate or tray, alphabet cards or magnets
Little fingers love the feel of something new, and when that sensory experience can be combined with active learning, it’s even better. Pour some salt onto the shallow tray or plate so that it covers the bottom surface- about 1/8″-1/4″ deep. Place the cards or magnets next to the tray, and allow your child to choose a letter and trace its shape into the salt. After each letter, they can “erase” by smoothing the salt back over the surface.
2. Noodle Stacking
Materials needed: a plate, tray, or cookie sheet, sculpting dough or clay, chopsticks or similarly-sized sticks, dry rigatoni or penne pasta noodles in a bowl
For this activity, your little one will be practicing their fine motor skills, and you can even invite them to help you set it up. Take your sculpting dough and spread it out onto your tray, plate, or cookie sheet. You’ll need it to be about an inch thick. Next, poke the sticks into the dough, leaving a few inches between them, like trees in a miniature forest. Place the bowl of noodles to the left of the sticks in the dough, and show your child how to thread the noodles over the sticks, stacking them as they go.
For some added counting practice, challenge your child to stack specific numbers of noodles on different sticks.
3. Coin Sorting
Materials needed: 1 cookie sheet or tray, 1 large bowl, 4 smaller bowls, several quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies
Handling money is a life skill that can start in childhood, and this coin sorting activity is a wonderful way to begin. Place all of the coins in the large bowl, and then place the large bowl and the smaller bowls on the cookie sheet to define the workspace. Show your child how there are four types of coins, and each coin is different. Allow your child to use the four empty bowls to sort each coin by type- pennies in one, nickels in another, and so on.
4. Pouring Station
Materials needed: towel, shallow plastic storage container/tub the size of a shoebox or larger, 8-10 small containers for pouring: cups, small pitchers, jars, scoops, ladles, bowls, etc., food coloring (optional)
Young children are fascinated by water and how it feels and moves, so a pouring station is certain to spark interest and delight in any child. Layout a towel on a table or on the floor (kitchen or bathroom is best, outside is even better!) and place the plastic tub on the towel. Partially fill most of the various pitchers, cups, etc. with water, and add different shades of food coloring if you’d like. Place the various pouring containers- filled and unfilled- into the larger plastic tub. Encourage your child to pour the water from the filled containers into the empty ones and back again. As they practice their pouring skills, not only will they have fun, they will also become more comfortable and more adept at pouring carefully and they will learn more about how liquids behave.
5. Cookie Cutter Puzzle
Materials needed: tray or cookie sheet, plain piece of paper (construction paper or printer paper), several cookie cutters, writing utensil
For this activity, your cookie cutters will become the pieces of a fun puzzle. Take your sheet of paper and use a writing utensil to trace the shapes of the cookie cutters onto the paper. Place the paper on your cookie sheet or tray and place the cookie cutters on the tray to the left of the paper. Encourage your child to place the cookie cutters onto their corresponding shape on the paper. For even more fun, allow your child to help create a new puzzle by having them trace different cookie cutters on another piece of paper.
With a little bit of creativity – and some rummaging around in your kitchen cabinets – your own home can become an extension of the Montessori activities from the classroom where you and your child can explore together.
