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Now that we have our new Montessori shelves installed, I have been anxious to put them to use. And with 4th of July fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to create a variety of 4th of July Montessori activities and trays to set out for the next few weeks. In this post I’m sharing the 4th of July Montessori activities on our shelves right now.
Note: For more 4th of July activities and printables, see my 4th of July activities page.
Star Color Grading 4th of July Montessori activity
I created a printable star color grading activity to work on distinguishing shades of color from light to dark, which is a Montessori sensorial activity. The use of stars, of course, was inspired by the 4th of July theme for this month, but could be used at any time. (Grab this download here.)
Spooning water beads
I found this nifty set of metal cups at Goodwill, and it has been perfect for practical life spooning exercises. For this month, I filled one cup with water beads
XGirl loves this kind of practical life activity, and I love watching her take so much care with her work.
Flag patterns 4th of July Montessori activity
I created a series of images that show four flags in a variety of patterns (you can download them 
QBoy was fascinated by this work, and impressed me with how well he was able to copy the images. (I happen to be very spatially challenged, so this kind of work would have been very difficult for me at his age.)
Put the water beads on the golf tees
This tray has three parts – a star container stuffed with our gluten-free play dough, a jar with water beads
There are so many wonderful fine motor challenges involved with this activity, including opening the jar of water beads
XGirl spent a very long time with this tray and was so determined to get all the water beads to balance on the golf tees.
Shadow matching 4th of July Montessori activity
This shadow matching activity comes from my 
Water pouring 4th of July Montessori activity
This water pouring activity works on practical life and fine motor skills. The kids have to carefully pour the water from the pitcher into the two tea cups, and then pour the water back into the pitcher. I dyed the water blue in honor of the 4th of July, although I first made sure that I would be able to get the color out of my carpet if the kids should spill.
If they spill on the tray (which is to be expected), I have provided a cloth for them to clean up their spills.
Plant a flag 4th of July Montessori activity
This practical life and fine motor activity requires the kids to stick about 50 American flag toothpicks
QBoy really enjoyed this activity, and worked meticulously to put all 50 flags into the block.
As he worked, he kept remarking on how many there were! And when he finished, he asked me to count each of the flags as he put them back into the bowl. I happily obliged, of course. 🙂
Number matching to objects
This activity from my 
Scissors skills
On this tray I put several items for the kids to practice cutting. The little kids come from my > Star-Themed Shades of Color Activity” href=”https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/product/star-color-grading-activity/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Star-Themed Shades of Color Activity.
XGirl spent a lot of time with this tray the first time it was out. She kept cutting and cutting, all the while announcing over and over that she was “working on my motor skills.” 🙂
Patriotic shapes matching 4th of July Montessori activity
This is a simple shapes matching activity from my 
For lots of other great Montessori-inspired 4th of July learning, I recommend this post from Living Montessori Now.
More 4th of July resources
More 4th of July posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Books about the American flag
- Fireworks in a jar
- 4th of July sensory bin
- Sticky paper American flag craft
- 4th of July Printables Pack
- 4th of July do-a-dot printables
- 4th of July Bingo
- 4th of July Sudoku
- American flag printables
For more 4th of July activities, see me 4th of July Activities page and my 4th of July Pinterest board.
Follow Gift of Curiosity’s board 4th of July on Pinterest.
Products mentioned in this post:
What great Ideals!! My daughter would love the waterbeds
My kids always have so much fun with water beads. I’ll be sharing our 4th of July water bead sensory bin soon!
These are magnificent ideas! I will copy the flag toothpicks in foam for my toddler. 🙂
Found you over on family fun Friday, I love the star and golf tee idea, I think we will have to try it, Thank you for sharing and have a great weekend.
Thank you so much for sharing! You have some great ideas here. I’m guessing I will be using some of them next week. I really love the activity with arranging flags to match the cards. It’s by far my favorite!
Love, love, love the astronomy unit you just posted about!
What creative 4th of July learning activities!
Just shared at your party! Thanks for the invitation!
I just love that flag activity to help work on spatial awareness skills. It’s a brilliant idea and such a great teaching too. I can’t believe I never thought of it. Thanks for the idea!
Thanks for linking up for our first Super Summer Saturday party. Just pinned to our boards to share with our followers.
These ideas are awesome! My daughter is too young for them right now, but that’s what Pinterest was invented for! 😉 Definitely will store these for use in a couple years! Thanks for sharing.
I know what you mean about Pinterest! I pin stuff all the time with plans to use it when my kids are a bit older. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
What wonderful activities. I love the ideas with the water beads. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
I just love this set of activities! My favorite, though, has got to be putting the beads on the golf tees! Thanks so much for sharing it at Stress-Free Sunday! I’m featuring this activity this weekend. 🙂
Thanks for featuring our 4th of July activities!
Wow, what an incredible post! I am pinning this and can’t wait to try them 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this at Teach Me Tuesday!! I’m featuring it at this week’s party–congratulations!!
Thanks for featuring our activities! Happy 4th of July!
Wow…just found your blog and love it! I have been reading about Montessori and these activities would be perfect to start with. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Glad you found something you can use.
Some great ideas!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
kATIE, thank you for the AWESOME ,fresh 4th. of July ideas. I will be using them in my pre. K classroom this week!Thank you for SHARING! I just LOVE this website ,and it is one of my favorites!
Aw, thanks Julie! That means a lot to me. I’m so glad you can use my work with your pre-K students!
I love all of your awesome ideas for 4th. Of July! Thank you Katie!