Montessori activities for 3 year olds at home

Montessori Sea Shell Activities You'll Love!

My children love tasks that involve natural materials. Where there is some thing for them to hold, feel, touch. Where there's something that is interesting, with fascinating minor details. Now I am featuring some Montessori Shell Activities whom I know you will adore.
The Shell Poster (left in top image) is from Montessori Materials and the Univalve/Bivalve sheet is from Montessori for Everyone.
Cleaning a substantial shell - Brosser un gros coquillage at Le blog de Sylvie d'Esclaibes. This is a fantastic notion, nearly all of our shells are unclean and could do with a great scrub! Matching shells to cards - Apprendre avec des coquillages at Les ateliers de Céleste Pédagogie Montessori et éducation biologique. Another example of fitting shells to cards can be discovered at Les aventures chez nounou Marie. I consider they're using the wonderful shell group and matching cards from Michael Olaf! The cards hold the name of the shell which introduces the language element and allows the parent or caregiver to provide the little one together with the proper terminology. This really is from one of my favorite nature tables (which included tons of shells) where Otis is making imprints with the shells into sand. I recall one of Caspar's favorite actions when he first started in his Cycle One classroom (in Canberra as a three-year old) was a tray with all different types of shells along with a simple magnifying glass. There's something exceptional about sea shells!

Using Scales and Balance Buckets

Here are some other Montessori and Inquiry-Based learning notions that I love. These activities are also really simple to put together. Our scales were around $15, or you also can use kitchen scales, and we only use materials we already have at home! So many of these examples use natural materials but I also enjoy the thought of utilizing standard size blocks (#8) where the blocks are of equal weight. I adore the sensory table for younger children (#6). I presume I shall try a set up like #3 next, where the kid has many different substances to weigh and record - it looks amazing for some added math and literacy skills!
1. Equilibrium pail with loose parts at How we Montessori (on our shelves here).
2. Maths In the Resort Area with An idea on Tuesday.
3. Magnet Trays and Scale Weighing at Learning Cente of Dundee Omaha, Nebraska
4. Drop Inspired Weighing Action with Equilibrium Scales at Montessori from the Heart.
5. General Mathematics Provocations at Welcome to Primary.
6. Balance Scales in the Sensory Table for An Regular Story.
7. Equilibrium scales at How we Montessori.
8. Investigating Measurement Through Play - Mass at Suzie's Home Education Thoughts.

Geoboard - Three Ways

Otis has been home from school for the past three days, so we've pulled out a few new tasks! Above is a standard geoboard with the extra twist of utilizing grid paper. The kid draws shapes on the paper subsequently makes the shapes on the geoboard. When utilizing the geoboard Otis typically makes random contours and sometimes creates a graphic or small scene. Above he's using a transparent plank on the light table. I made Otis this natural geoboard - inspired through this place at Fairy Dust Teaching. I really like the way that it is a bit rustic and gets the kid think only a little differently about making the contours. It appears a bit more brilliant too!

Home day care

Playdough - Four Ways

Otis is five and adores playdough now more than ever. I have written sometimes about how we use playdough, consistently with distinct things and in different colours, textures and aromas. Adding essential oils to playdough is a must. Here are four ways we are now reveling playdough.
1. Alphabet Stamps. This really is a wonderful early literacy activity, recalling it is best to begin with lower case letters.
2. Other Stamps. I didn't realise how much fun this would be. We have a lot of stamps at home so there's always lots for the boys to choose from. I've also wiped down our Melissa and Doug stamps and these work really well with the playdough too!
3. I really like combining natural materials with playdough. Feathers, shells and pinecones can also result in creative play with playdough.
4. Galaxy Dough!! I have needed to do this for the longest time. I first read about Galaxy Dough at Fairy Dust Teaching. It's simply black playdough with lots of glitter combined through. Otis was amazed! It is enjoyable to play with as it is so different to all of our other playdough. Limelight (a craft shop in Australia) and cake decorating speciality stores have black food colouring including in a powder form. They often have a lot of different colors of food colouring which will make a nice change from the normal colours you see in playdough. We could make a set of playdough all in precisely the same colour but in different colours - wonderful! We use playdough and Alphabet Stamps from Joyful Hands Happy Heart. I am hoping you've enjoyed this little peek into our playdough play!

Alphabet Puzzle Tote

Do you have an Alphabet Puzzle or Moveable Alphabet at home? If so, this really is a really interesting activity that reinforces knowledge on the shapes and type of letters. I wouldn't do this in a way to teach children their letters or to examine them but to augment their knowledge. I'd contain letters they're confident with alongside letters they may be fighting with. This is really an easy task of placing the letters from an Alphabet Puzzle or Moveable Alphabet into a Mystery Bag and enabling the child by making use of their hands and their sense of touch simply to identify each letter. Choose the letters from the Alphabet Puzzle (or Moveable Alphabet) and place these in the Enigma Tote without the youngster seeing. Invite the child over to sit down at a work mat or table. Encourage the little one to place one or both hands in the bag and one at a time, without peeking, identify which letter they may be holding.
The notion is that through touch the child forms a graphic of the letter in their own thoughts. If they are able to remember the sound of the letter it can help increase their connection between the sound as well as the shape and form of the letter. As an extension, in case you have comprised vowels and consonants you can also encourage the little one to generate some words with the letters they've identified.
Above Otis places his hand in the Enigma Bag and feels for a letter. He has identified this as a 'w'. He sets the letter on the mat and sets his hand back in for another letter. The Mystery Tote is just one of our favourite stuff which we've used many times over time. Otis used his first Mystery Bag as a toddler with a few family things in it. It actually heightens their sense of touch. Our Mystery Bag is an easy silk lined, drawstring bag. I usually be sure it remains to around five things in the tote. These posts reveal a number of the ways in which we've used the Mystery Bag (or Mystery Box). With all actions at home, I attempt to keep it engaging and lighthearted. In case you give this a go I hope you enjoy!

Geometry Love- Montessori Stuff for Geometric Form Work

You may have guessed following yesterday's post, that we've been doing plenty of geometric shape work around here! We have been using the Geo Strips (number 3.) and I am often asked about them. So I've compiled a quick list of another geometric contour building sticks and pieces that may be useful for a Montessori home or classroom!
1. Learning Edge Connecting GeoStix (Australia here).
2. Learning Resources Geometric Shapes Construction Set (similar Australia here).
3. Geo Strips (Australia here) (you are able to see Otis using the Geo Strips in this post).
4. Wikki Stix Basic Contours Creative Entertaining Kit.
5. Learning Resources Transparent Anglegs (the Anglegs come in various sizes too!).
6. Montessori Geometric Stick Material (Australia here) (I adore this image from Westside Montessori School of the Montessori Geometric Stick work, with a brief description).