Fall Activity Trays

Bean has been working on some new fall activities.

Cutting Practice Trays

I found these free Fall Cutting Strips from Montessori Print Shop.  Bean does really well using her scissors.  She does better with paper than hair, though.

Playdough Play

I found this recipe for pumpkin pie scented playdough and made some up for Bean.  Note to fellow playdough makers - I tried making this recipe.  I did not have enough salt so it did not turn out right.  Next time I think I will try cutting this recipe in half to see how much that will make.  But it did smell wonderful anyways.

Halloween Sensory Tub

I couldn't find all the fall items I had for last year's sensory tub so I had to get a few new things.  Thank goodness for Target's $1 section.  Yes, lookey there, I gave Target a compliment.  Ha!

We used sticky skeletons and mice which we quickly learned weren't good cause the green peas stuck to them, ghost and bat erasers, mini pumpkins, snakes and spiders.  Bean left one of the spiders on the counter and later that night when I went in for a snack, I had quite the fright!

Notice the bee that is hanging around up there?  That's Bizzy.  Bizzy the Bee.  Bean was assigned to bring her home for the weekend and journal what the two of them did all weekend.  They had a wonderful time together and Bizzy has been invited back any time she wants.

Kidtivities - Washing the baby

I mentioned earlier here that I am enrolled in an online Montessori training class. Montessori lessons are broken up into different categories or areas of study. One of these areas is called Practical Life. Practical Life is just that really - activities to teach children how to care for themselves by doing normal everyday life things that help instill confidence and well-being in a child.

I came up with this activity which we call "Washing the Baby" after seeing several other blogging Montessori moms sharing similar lessons.

First off, we gathered up a plastic washable doll, baby wash, lotion, baby powder, bath tub (which in this case is the small dish pan that we use for our sensory tub), wash cloth, towels, and some bath toys for the "baby".

I placed everything on a tray and showed Bean what do do with each item and how to wash the baby. Bean had a great time with this activity and asks to do it again and again. We have the cleanest baby doll in the neighborhood.

After Bean finished washing the baby, we moved the tub off to the side and she dried the doll off.  She loved applying the lotion and powder.  This doll is clean and smells so good!

We have to work on the proper handling of a baby but that's another lesson.

This activity is designed to teach children how to properly wash their bodies.  By learning how to wash the baby, they see how to care for themselves.

After the lotioning and the powdering, Bean diapered and dressed the baby, too.  Then she promptly put the doll head first into a bookbag and started carrying her around.  Like I said, proper baby handling techniques will be taught later.  One step at a time.

Lacing Beads and Sea Creatures

On Sunday, Bean and I did some painting - a lot of painting. A few months back I purchased these packs of wooden beads, spools, pegs and pots from Hobby Lobby. I had intended to paint the spools and put them in Bean's Easter basket but that danged bunny didn't leave me any room. He took it all with his silly candy. Oh well.

(I will share the peg and pots and the larger beads and how we use them in a later post.)

I wanted to make Bean some new Montessori-ish activities to do this month and remembered I had these that needed to be painted. I spread out some newspaper, grabbed all of our paints and supplies and we got to work. Bean started painting a little box she found in my craft stash. I asked her what color she wanted to use and she said "PINK!". That's my kid.

You can tell two things from these pictures.  One, she is tired of having her picture taken, and two, she has developed the same habit I have of sucking in my bottom lip when I'm concentrating on something.  Aww...

This painting process took a lot longer than I had planned. Like all day longer. Bean gave up way before I did. We took breaks throughout the day but it did take all day to paint everything.

Here's the finished product of the spools and how I presented them to her as a Montessori activity. Right away she knew what to do and started lacing the beads. She got frustrated a few times with the cord I gave her to use. It was a drawstring that came out of a hoodie I wear so it does have a little more "play" in it than should be but it did the job.

 

After she finished the lacing beads, I brought out some printables I found on 1+1+1=1. These are from her In The Girly Sea Preschool Pack. These are the 3-part cards showing various sea creatures.

There is one control card for each image and then Bean is supposed to match up each creature name and the corresponding picture. I was really amazed at how well she did. She got them all correct the first time she tried. She matched the words up first. I know she can't read but she matched the letters up by shape. Then she went back and added in the pictures. My kid's a genius!!! Okay, okay, I know that's a little overboard but really, my kid's a genius people! She takes after her mama. Duh!

G is for Goat

I recently started an online Montessori training class. Bean was enrolled in a local Montessori preschool but I don't think, due to finances and scheduling, that we'll be able to send her back there in the fall. I really believe in the Montessori method or what I have learned of it in the past year. The basic concept is to "follow the child". I am in no way a trained teacher nor do I play one on tv, [this is where you all laugh], but when I found this class, I thought it would be a way for me to learn more about the method and a way that I can continue the lessons with Bean on our own.

Just to share more info on the online class that I am taking, it is taught by Karen Tyler, owner of Worldwide Montessori Online. Karen teaches her class through a Yahoo group and shares her Montessori albums she has complied through her years teaching. This is an easy and affordable way to learn the method and the information that I've already received is amazing.

Now, along with this class, I have been scouring the internet for activities I can do with Bean. One extremely helpful site I found is 1+1+1=1. Carisa shares so many wonderful printables completely free to her readers. She shares activities for different ages and stages - Totschool, Raising Rock Stars Preschool, and You Can Read. My biggest problem is learning to pace myself with the printables.

One recent set of printables that I found at 1+1+1=1 is G is for Goat. I printed the set off and let Bean work on them while I made dinner. She loves to do her "actibities" all the time. She had a lot of fun using her dot markers with these printables.

I was afraid she was going to run her markers dry trying to color the whole goat.

 

She used one color to pick out all the uppercase letters and another color for all the lowercase ones.

 

She used a crayon to trace the uppercase and lowercase "G"s.  It's a bit shaky but this is the first time she's done one of these.

Here's another tracing printable that she used to follow the line from the uppercase to the lowercase letter.

This was Bean's favorite printable in the series.  I would call out a shape and she would mark it off with her dot marker.  She wanted to do this one over and over but I only had the one copy.  Next time, I will put the printable in a sheet protector and let her mark the shapes off with her dry erase crayons so she can do it more than once.

If you're looking for activities to do with your toddler, I would definitely recommend 1+1+1=1.  You can find so many ways to teach while your kids just think they are having fun.

Toddler Needlework

Some of you may know that Bean goes to a Montessori preschool. I often ask her what she does at school. I am most often given the same answer - "I don't know".

Each week they send home a folder with school information and Bean's handiwork. It is usually crayon drawings or colored pieces of paper glued to a page. Standard toddler work.

This is what came home with Bean on Monday.

 

I was amazed.  They teach the kids to use a loom and a needle and thread.  The teacher will outline the shape and sit with the child while they stitch around it.  Bean's come home before with a partially completed shape but never a fully completed one.  I used to think that this was one of those projects where the teacher did most of the work while the child sat at watched.  I actually did an observation in Bean's class yesterday morning and watched this process take place.  The teacher did sit with a child while she was doing her needlework.  But the child went and got the needle, cut the thread, took out the loom, did get some help putting the material in the loom but not much, and then sat there and went around the shape sewing back and forth herself.  Again, I was amazed.

Bean is 3.  She can do better needlepoint than I can.  Do you think my Mom would have handed over a needle to me at age 3?  Nope. She didn't want to give me one when I was 12, especially after the tragic sewing machine incident involving my thumb.  My thumb still twitches when it gets near a sewing machine.

I just love the Montessori method and am glad Bean has gotten to experience it. 

March Sensory Tub

It's time for March's Sensory Tub reveal. This month's theme is St. Patrick's Day.

Of course you have to go green for St. Paddy's Day but I just didn't have it in me to dye a bunch of rice green. I was kinda burnt out on the rice so I had to come up with something else to use that would allow me to hide the treasures well enough and something that would give a different feeling on Bean's hands when she went searching.

I've seen other sensory tubs done with dried beans so I thought I would look around on that aisle at the grocery store for inspiration.  My first thought was to use some dried white beans until I spied the dried split peas. Ah ha! Perfect.

We bought 4 bags of dried split peas at .89 each = $3.56.

The peas have a completely different feel than rice does. These are smoother. You just want to dig your hands down into them. Hubz said "wow, you should make a pillow or something and use these". Of course then he realized to whom he was speaking and remembered that I am still scared of my brand new sewing machine and said "or not".

I was short on money this month which meant no new treasures from the dollar store for the tub. I had to search around the house for these goodies.

Here are the treasures:

Pennies
Gold glitter chipboard letters that spell out "lucky"
A green plastic slinky from a birthday party favor bag
Some purple glass flowers and green glass stones
A couple of frog erasers (dunno why I added frogs but I did)
A tiny terracotta pot that serves as the pot of gold, and
A little gnome I've had sitting on a desk. He's playing the part of the leprechaun.

Since I used items I already had, the total cost of this month's box was $3.56 for the beans.  

Valentine Sensory Tub

Last month we made a birthday-themed sensory tub. This month we put together a Valentine tub.

We started with a 5 pound bag of rice. I scooped some into a ziploc bag and added in a few drops of food coloring and a couple of drops of hand sanitizer. I decided to use red and pink food coloring but if I had it to do over, I would have left some of the rice plain to give it a nicer color division.

Pardon the red tablecloth.  It doesn't make for a very good background. 

Bean loved rolling the bag of rice around trying to get the food color to mix in.

Also pardon our piggy bank for giving you a picture of its backside.  Some piggies have no manners.

 After we colored the rice I took some cookie cutters and used the pink rice to make hearts. The bottom right one couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a heart or just a blob. I think blob won.

I also added some pink curly ribbon pieces cause you know I had to “girl it up” somehow.

Then I realized I had made the biggest mistake...I had forgotten to hide the items in the rice before I made the heart designs.

But Bean quickly saved the day by running her hands through the hearts and they all went bye-bye. I’m just glad I was fast enough to take the picture of the hearts before she took charge.

For the hidden treasures, I used Valentine erasers, heart-shaped purple glass pieces, some white and clear glass pieces, paper hearts and scalloped circles and some butterfly, flower and ladybug foam stickers. Bean uses a long red spoon to sift through the rice and places the treasures in the red heart dish when she finds them.

She’s still stuck on “rainbow rice” though because that’s what I used last month. So now she will ask if she can play with her “valentimeb rainbow rice”. Whatever makes her happy.

Birthday Sensory Tub

I read a ton of Montessori learning blogs and have read a lot on sensory tubs.  Sensory tubs aren't necessarily a Montessori activity but they seem to go hand in hand with each other.  I've wanted to make Bean one for awhile and thought since her birthday is coming up, I would try a birthday-themed tub. If you aren't familiar with sensory tubs, Counting Coconuts has a great post all about them.

I found a recipe by Two Little Seeds for Rainbow Rice. I used neon food coloring and the colors turned out really bright and festive.

I used balloons, candles, small erasers shaped like cake and ice cream, some Mickey Mouse favors since she will be having a Minnie Mouse themed party, some small butterfly favors, craft sticks and some bouncy balls. I gave her a colorful ice cream spoon to use to dig through the rice. I found all of these items as well as the green tub to hold it all at Dollar Tree. It all cost about $25-30 dollars but these are items that can be used with other themes later on, so the cost wasn't that bad.

Bean loves this activity.  She isn't allowed to take any of the items away from the tub which makes them a little more special since she can only play with them while working on the tub.  She also has done surprisingly well with keeping the rice in the tub.  She "lubs actibities".  She asks to do it daily and she usually spends a half hour on it at a time.