Montessori Monday Valentine's Day Fine Motor Skills

Valentine's Sensory Box!!

Spooning water beads into heart trays.

Today I want to share with you some of our Valentine's day "works".  In a Montessori classroom we call the items that we put out on the shelves for children to work on "works".  Many of these activities can be made with common household items.  The kids are given an individual or group lesson and then they may choose them off the shelf to work on. 

These are our practical life shelves. 

Practical life "works" are introduced to kids to build fine motor skills and to work on practical life skills.  Many of the tasks in this area are to practice everyday skills.  The children love working on activities that they see adults work on everyday. 

Card writing basket. 

This has word wall words, Valentine's day words, pens, markers, pencils, and items to decorate a card

Sorting, counting and patterning Valentine's erasers

Valentine's Tangrams

We are working on Pouring into 4 containers. 

Lacing beads extension, making a criss cross on the buttons

Heart lacing

Shape nuts and bolts, sorting, and matching fine motor practice

Letter Pinning and heart pinning

Fine motor practice marbles on a suction cup paddle

Letter writing on white boards

Wikki Stick letter and heart shaping

Fine motor practice heart sticks into a Parmesan cheese container

I found this adorable broom at the Dollar Store and thought it would be perfect for "crumbing" the tables.  The children love doing this work. 

Heart "I spy" box.  I found this box at the Dollar store.  I filled it with rainbow rice, Valentine's shapes, letter number beads.  The children shake the box and find letters and numbers.  The younger ones circle the letters and numbers they find on a control chart.  The older ones write the numbers down. 

Heart shaped links.  I found these at the Dollar store.  The children make patterns and sort them.  This week we will use them for measuring. 

Our Math Shelves

Here is what is on our math shelves right now.  When a new parent asks about Montessori I show them our math shelves as an example.  I tell them you will not see a lot of worksheets come home because everything we do in the classroom is hands on.  We have a "math work time" and a "language work time" everyday.  

Fine motor practice and counting

Shape matching

Pattern Block and unifix cube graphing

Penny sorting, and coin rolling. 

These are a few of the works we have on our shelves right now.  I would love to know what you are working on this month.  Please leave me a comment and let me know how you can use some of these works at home or in your classroom!