Montessori activities: Currently on our shelves

A couple of months ago I gave my readers a sneak peak at what was on our Montessori shelves at the time, and today I’m back to do it again. 🙂 Please keep in mind that I am not a certified Montessori teacher. I’m just a mom who loves Montessori and has been doing my best to learn as much as I can about the philosophy and approach. I hope that by sharing the Montessori activities we’ve been doing that this will spark ideas for other parents.

Number chains

This tray focuses on number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills. The kids create chains of different lengths using our jumbo chain links.

Writing numbers in the salt tray

I prepared a simple salt tray by pouring salt into a shallow food storage container. The kids select a number from our sandpaper numerals, trace the sandpaper number with their fingers, and then write that number in the salt tray.

Egg carton math to work on subitizing and counting

I took an empty egg carton and drew either one, two, or three dots in the bottom of each well. I then provided a number of glass gems. The kids look at the number of dots in each well and then add that number of glass gems to the well. The kids can count the dots, but my goal is for them to start subitizing – subitizing is the art of looking at a group of objects and knowing how many they are without needing to count them.

Memory

I pulled out our game of Original Memory for the kids to work on matching up pairs of cards. The matching part isn’t difficult for them, but they like the memory challenge involved in the game.

Ice Cream Scoop Counting Activity

I am not yet willing to let go of summer :-), so I pulled out our Ice Cream Scoop Counting Activity.  The kids lay out the cones in numerical order and then place the indicated number of scoops on top of each cone.

Pattern matching bead stringing

This activity works on patterning, following directions, and fine motor skills. The idea is for the kids to string the beads onto the pipe cleaner to match the pattern on the card. To get a copy of the entire control card printable that this activity comes from, click here.

Count and clip

I have two versions of this tray. In this version, the plate is divided in to five sections with 1 to 5 dots in each section. The kids count the number of dots, find the clothespin with the corresponding numeral, and then clip the clothespin to the appropriate section of the plate.

This is the same activity, except this plate has 10 sections with 1-10 dots.

Tracing shapes on sandpaper using yarn

For this activity I used a crayon to draw four shapes on a piece of sandpaper. The kids use the cut pieces of yarn – which tend to stick to the rough sandpaper – to trace each of the shapes.

Sensorial extensions using the knobbed cylinders

My kids don’t have any difficulty doing the basic knobbed cylinders activity. So we tried an extension activity whereby they had to fit the cylinders into the holes while wearing a blindfold (or in our case, a ski hat pulled over their faces).

Doing this activity was a blindfold was definitely more challenging for them. In fact, XGirl was getting so frustrated that I stopped the activity before she had finished. We’ll try this again in a few weeks to see if she is more ready.

More Montessori resources

More Montessori posts from Gift of Curiosity:

• Ocean Montessori activities
• Farm Montessori activities
• Pirate Montessori activities
• Valentine Montessori activities
• Easter Montessori activities
• 4th of July Montessori activities
• Christmas Montessori activities
• Practical life activities using food
• Montessori mapping activities
• Montessori living / nonliving / once living activities
• Montessori sandpaper letters

Foe more Montessori ideas, see my Montessori activities page and my Montessori Pinterest board.

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