Montessori January Activities for Preschoolers
Friday, December 30, 2016
Vito is 38 months.
Starting 2017 by sharing what’s on our shelves for the month of January! For this month, we will be working on penguins (preschool style), along with other Montessori traditional work. I’ve been wanting to introduce penguins since December but we were so busy with all the holiday preparations that I decided to postpone it a little bit and introduce it at the time when “all is calm and all is bright” (more sun in January!). Feel free to skim through Vito’s activities and you can leave comments if you have queries.
I post photos in my Instagram everyday for the activities. You can check them or follow me to see how these materials are put into action!
Montessori Inspired Continent Activities for Preschoolers
Friday, December 16, 2016
Learn to Write Letters for Preschoolers Using Sandpaper Letters
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Montessori Inspired Vegetable Activities for Kids (Part 1)
Monday, November 28, 2016
Language Lessons for Preschoolers: RAMFBITG
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Vito is currently working hard learning his letters, sounds, and expanding his vocabulary. Due to weather constraint we are mostly stuck at home, therefore the lack of outdoor nature studies. So our mornings are mostly spent for his “homeschool”. We are busy reading books, learning letters, doing writing, and practical life activities.
In this post, I would like to share Vito’s language lessons which you can try in your homes as well. Remember my post on booklets? I mentioned in the post that at home we’re learning letters and their sounds in groups (color coded). First group is RAMF-BITG, second is CUSN-POLH and lastly DEXQY-WXZKVJ. This idea came from My Montessori Journey, one of my favourite blogs dated back in 2010. Read more about this grouping here.
Preschool Letter M
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Vito is 34 months old.
Our letter M last week. I should have posted this earlier but I’m having migraines so I wasn’t able to create a post. Unlike with letter A, Vito was in the mood to work with our letter activities. Take a look at the highlights of our letter of the week.
Color Mixing Activity for Preschoolers: Green, Orange and Purple
Sunday, September 25, 2016
After exploring colour shades and tints, we moved on to learning secondary colours. We have a few books on colours but this book Colours My First Discovery Book got Vito hooked. It’s the only book he ever cared about when were discussing colours. I highly recommend this book for kids ages 1.5 years and older. My first attempt of showing him the blue and yellow makes green was using tempera paints, but it was short lived. His attention span was about 5 minutes and after that he wasn’t interested anymore. So I went back to the one activity that he loves: colour mixing using water.
Preschool Letter A
Monday, September 19, 2016
This was the week that Vito wasn’t in the mood to work on any letter activity. Yes, it happens. You can see the result of it in his work, which you will see when you scroll down. But anyway, I just wanted to share these activities and the materials we used so you will know where to get some alphabet sheets resources.
Autumn Nature Finds and How We Use Them
Saturday, September 17, 2016
We’ve been blessed with a beautiful weather last week. It’s actually pretty warm and sunny for September in Ireland which is quite unusual. So I grabbed the opportunity to walk the boys everyday and collect nature objects. We placed them in a basket and displayed it on the shelf for exploration and learning.
Toddler Activity Trays (34 Months)
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Autumn Themed Graphing Game
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
We are loving DIY math games! The boys enjoyed our Race Game a few weeks ago, so I didn’t hesitate to give them our Graphing Game. Not only can my preschooler practise his counting skills and taking turns, this is also a great opportunity to introduce date recording (and analysis) for older children.
Cork Stamping Art: Trees in Autumn
Monday, September 12, 2016
Life Cycle of an Apple Preschool Unit
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Vito is 34 months old.
I am so excited to share this with you! Last week, I set up an apple life cycle to Vito (and Mavi on the background) for a little science exploration. Apple is his favourite fruit and he was so delighted to see these materials in our shelf! Now if you take a look at our activity and materials, they’re pretty simple and easy to follow by a young preschooler. I assembled it in such a way that it’s not too overwhelming for him, yet enjoying and engaging.
What is Montessori “Cards and Counters”?
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Vito is 34 months.
“Cards and Counters” is a Montessori math activity that introduces the child to the units of quantity. This is to reinforce the sequence in numbers (one to ten) and to give the child a visual experience of quantity.
Vito loves to count. He counts pictures, objects and anything that interests him. So for his preschool math, I decided to give him a jumpstart on cards and counters. Take a look at the different ways we explore counting using Autumn-themed objects.
Magnetic Alphabet Sorting Activity and Sensorial Play
Monday, September 5, 2016
I couldn’t resist getting these magnetic letters from Early Learning Center because they were on sale and its the only magnetic set I found that’s using the Sassoon font (text standard in UK and Ireland). With these on hand, I set-up a sorting activity of letters for Vito.
Preschool Letter R
Sunday, September 4, 2016
We started our preschool unit with letter R and I divided the activities into two: (1) phonological awareness and (2) pre-writing. The pre-reading activities is scheduled on Mondays and pre-writing on Tuesdays. Vito does no more than 20 minutes of “school” per day. The rest of the activities, Vito considers it as “game” or “play”. During “school” time, I would quit the activities once I see that he’s bored or not interested. My experience has taught me that it’s not about the quantity of activities that I give to my kids that matter. In fact, they get tired so easily and bored when I do that. Especially with Vito, I learned that I should do things slowly with him, and that I should respect and follow his own timeline of learning. Mavi was different, he absorbs anything… he’s always interested, Vito is very choosy.
Going back, this week we’re starting with the letter R. Vito can name the letters of the alphabet if he’s in the mood so I decided that I should be giving him pre-reading activities so he won’t get bored. Below are some of the activities this week for pre-reading and pre-writing.
A Math Racing Game for Preschoolers
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Vito always wanted to join us whenever we play board games but we don’t allow him because it’s too much for him. Too many cards (and paper money) to scatter, dice which he couldn’t figure out how to use and what to do with it and so much more. So when I was making Autumn-Themed Math Activities, I made sure that I include a game that’s suitable for his age.
Autumn Themed Preschool Math Activities
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Vito is starting “preschool” math this school year and we are not using any curriculum. I guess it’s not necessary in our case. I will be using my experience with Mavi and with the thousand ideas online on setting up “play-based” and Montessori-inspired activities for Vito this school year. So in order for me to be able to organize and prepare materials ahead of time, I decided to come up with seasonal-themes for the upcoming months.
Beginning Letter Sort (R and A)
Monday, August 29, 2016
It’s been awhile since my last post! Sorry for not updating. Vito is starting “preschool” at home and I’ve been busy planning for his curriculum and preparing materials. Actually the curriculum is just a guide, everything will still depend on how he progress and what’s his current interest.
Anyway, I gathered some of Mavi’s old language materials and assembled a letter sorting activity for Vito next week. You’ve seen this a lot, like the booklet, the matching of pictures. But this time we’ll be working two letters a time and sort out objects that matches the beginning letter sound.