Montessori Activities For Under $2

I have to operate on a very tight budget, so when purchasing activities for the children I often shop long and hard. One of my favorite places to find some really neat works is our local Dollar Store, Michaels, and World Market. I wanted to share with you all some great finds I found for under $2 that the children have been enjoying.


                       Push pin work $1.00 at Micheals it came with the corkboard.

         Carrot clothespin work $1.50 at World Market.

                  Insect Lacing Cards $1 at Micheals.

 Matching Bottles and Caps all four bottles came in a package for $1 at the Dollar Store.

I made this work using a package of Modeling Clay for $1.99 at Micheals. The child hammers or pushes the golf tee into the clay and then balances the marble on the golf tee.

                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                        
  Another reason why I love the Montessori Method if you have a will you can find a way.
                                                                 

We Have Nymphs!!

On Monday our Praying Mantises Egg hatched! The number of nymphs we have is estimated at least 50. The kids were really excited to observe these little creatures. It is going to be amazing to watch these creatures became  fully developed Praying Mantises. We have talked about how some babies don't look like their parents but as time grows the characteristics develop. As descibed by Lil " They look like ants". I totally agree with her observation.

 Of course we have been learning about the life cycle of these helpful insects. Here is Jessica matching the life cycle models to the picture.

This is what the work looked like when Jessica completed it.

I purchased the cards from Alison's Montessori. I love the way the cards turned out, especially after I mounted them onto cardstock. Here is a close up of the work. They are three part cards,a control chart, and a blackline master was included for the children to label and color in the images of the life cycle.

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                     

Counting With Do-A- Dots Markers

I found this printable on the very resourceful blog Confessions Of A Homeschooler. I have used this printable before with objects and now the children are having a blast doing this activity with Do-A-Dots Markers. It is a  work that involves hand -eye coordination, and with a little guidance for some they have been counting and understanding quantity in relation to the number.


 Jessica is two years old and had a lot of fun making the sure the dot was in the square and counting along the way.

 Lil is three years old and understood that the number represented how many dots were going to be put in the column.

                                                                      

                                                                                 


                                                           

Montessori Monday

Last week was a short week for us. I was closed on Good Friday, and the children left early throughout the week. Well here are the photos that I have to share with you today.

                                      Tonging eggs.

                             Slicing a carrot.

                                              Coloring.

                                     Nuts and Bolts.

                                          Spooning.

                     Look at her go!! The geometric stacker.

                                      Trimming the wheat grass plant.

Jessica is showing our new friend John a brown stair extension.

 
                John trying to duplicate what he saw Jessica doing.

                                    Coloring eggs.

Thank you for stopping by!! Now pop over to One Hook Wonder to see other children learning inspired by the montessori method.                                                                 

Happy Easter !!

We have had a lovely time celebrating the coming of Easter Sunday. My kids and I enjoyed a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt and enjoyed coloring eggs.

                                   The Easter Egg Hunt

  I had more pictures of this event. I can't find them. DJ is in the blue coat with the hood, Ken is in the red coat, and Michelle is in the black coat picking up eggs.

                                               Coloring Eggs

 We  added a new twist to our egg coloring this year by spinning eggs in this machine I purchased at Target.

  The kids say they like coloring the eggs the "old fashion" way the best.

Happy Easter From My Family to Yours !!!

                                                                  


                                                                        

A Simple Practical Life Activity

I was grocery shopping the other day and noticed that the wheat grass plants were on sale for two for three dollars. I brought one and thought this would be a good work for the children. They love caring for our rabbit Max and they all like to use scissors. Well after just a few days our plant needed a trimming, so I introduced the work to N who takes caring for our enviroment very seriously.  N spent the entire work period trimming the plant and caring for Max.

                                             Our Wheat Grass plant.

                               N  trimming the plant.

                                   Cleaning the area.

                      Transferring the grass trimmings to Max's food bowl.

                                      Max's first serving of wheat grass.

                                                                

                                                                                

Works On The Toddlers' Shelf

I have two toddlers who are still in the smaller room patiently learning at their own pace before joining the rest of us in our daily montessori activities. I also now have an infant!!  It has been awhile since we have had the pleasure of being in the company of cooing. I haven't set up anything specifically for our infant, but it is going to happen soon and I will be sure to post about some of his activities. Our infant is 4 months, so we have been doing a lot of bonding during feeding and diapering time. I can tell you that he loves to observe, listen to music, and he only stops talking when he is sleep. For the todddlers I have added the following works to their shelves this week.


                                        Transferring eggs using whole hand.

                                     Pouring buttons.

                                Sticking bunnies in the holes exercising finger grasp.

                                    Spooning pom poms.

 Sorting by color. Sorting by sound or no sound I first saw this work on the blog Chasing Cherrios.

  Matching picture to object with animals. The cards are also touch and feel cards.

         
                    The Farm. Learning the names of objects known on a farm.

                           Geometric Stacker. This work is a lot harder than it looks!!

                                                                            


                                                                        

We are Back!! Montessori Monday

We are all doing fine! And we are working!! Thank you for everyone who left those really nice comments about my health. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the children working. I wasn't in the picture taking mood. I can tell you that when I take pictures of the children it dosen't affect their work one bit. I think it is a normal thing around here to see me with the camera. I quite often wondered about this picture taking business last week I had a chance to find out.


                          Building a DNA model.

                                               Knobbed Cylinder block.

                                                 Blue Constructive Triangles.

Sandpaper Numbers.

  I took DJ's advice and used the Knobless Cylinder Extension cards and made it a cutting work. The children loved it!! Again the cards can be purchased at http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/

                                                    Addition Strip Board.

      Here are some works on the shelf. Some are the same with a different twist.

                                    Sponge squeezing with a ladybug sponge.

                                                             Nuts and Bolts.

                                                          Pouring water to a line.

                                                         Dry pouring flower beads.

                                                Flower arranging using the clay in the pot.

                                                                 Tonging eggs.

                                                              Scrubbing carrots.

 Practing using a knife. The carrot has velcro between the slices, it gives it a good feel to what cutting is really like.

                   Sorting eggs. This came from Time for Tots.

Counting with one to one correspondence. This printable came from Confessions Of A Homeschooler.

   Another work from Time for Tots. The child uses the stone to match the color of the rabbits' tail.

                                                  Sorting peep erasers.

 Our dirt sensory bin. It has soil, leaves, insects, a scooper,a pot, and our bug vacuum. If you look closely there is a pink butterfly that the child tries to vacuum. This is a fun tool that the children are getting very good at using. Although the season is Spring, it is still very cold here in Michigan. In fact today it is snowing :(

To see other children learning inspired by the montessori method please visit One Hook Wonder.