Montessori Inspired Writing Workshop

Hello All!  
It has been too long since I last wrote!  I just wrote a blog post for PreK and K sharing and you can find the post HERE.  I talked about how to start a writing workshop in a Montessori classroom.  The main thing is to instill a love of writing in a child at a very young age.  Writing can be a daunting task for children...and adults!  If you can find a way to make it fun and have meaning it doesn't feel quite so much like work.  

I think that in a preschool class having daily or weekly drawing workshops it teaches the children to draw with purpose.  Draw to tell a story.  This will get the child excited and begin the writing process.  Once the child is comfortable drawing with meaning then you add more complex steps such as labeling, writing a sentence using the labels and eventually a story.

Check out my post at PreK and K sharing and I promise I will write again very soon!  I have missed blogging and I am excited to be back!

Rachel Supalla

Montessori Easter Works

Hippity Hoppity Easter is on it's way!  I am sorry this post is a bit long but I wanted to give you a good visual of all our Easter works.  Most of these works will stay on our shelves until May. 

This is our Easter Sensory box.  It has pots, flowers, eggs and scoops. 

Flower arranging is a work that encourages fine motor development and also teaches grace and courteousy.  It is a foam floral cube inside a pot with silk flowers to arrange.

I made these letter sticks from tongue depressors and foam letters.  These can be uses for fine motor development. tactile learning, abc recognition, spelling. beginning sounds and ABC order.  In this work they choose a letter stick then build the letter with the beads. 

Mystery bag and Basket is a Montessori activity where you describe an object and the child using clues and tactile exploration to guess the object.  In this activity I used Easter grass to hide the objects.  The objects are wooden letters from Melissa and Doug.

This is a medium sized foam ball.  We called it an egg, the kids used the pipe cleaners to stick in the egg. 

These are oval shaped pieces of paper cut out and laminated.  The child grades them from smallest to largest. 

These are foam stickers from the Dollar Store.  The kids make patterns and count with them.

This is my FAVORITE Easter book.  It talks about all the fun things that go along with Easter as well as the BEST thing about Easter.

This is an extension activity I do to reinforce the story above.  The kids sort the Easter objects.  Later in the week we make a craft with these objects. 

Here are the letters from the mystery basket.  This child decided on his own to sort them by colors!  LOVE IT!!!

This  work is also from the Dollar Store.  I uses it as a fine motor activity.  The younger children take the bunny pegs out and place them in the triangle.

This month we are studying birds.  These are pattern block birds.

This is another extension to our story.  The child draws a picture of the best thing about Easter.  When they are finished they can write, label or dictate what the best thing about Easter is!!

Here is the floam again!  I like to use it for different works.  At this work the child makes an egg shape and decorates it with the items in the paper mache egg.

Last but certainly not least is balloon painting bunny ears.  This activity was so much fun I could write an entire post just on it.  We were painting bunny ears and I couldn't find our corks.  I looked through my supply closet and decided it would be fun to paint with balloons.  I blew up balloons in different sizes and we mixed red and white paints.  The kids came to the table and "sponge painted" with the balloons.  I can't wait to paint with balloons again!! 

Have a happy and meaningful Easter!!

Rachel

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!