How to Make Your Own Montessori Materials

While there are many beautiful, wooden Montessori materials you can order online, you can go the DIY Montessori route for some or all of your Montessori materials at home. As I’ve said before, you don’t need to duplicate a Montessori school. It’s wonderful if you’re able to purchase some of the wooden materials because of their beauty and precision, but it certainly isn’t essential.

My first experience with Montessori was in a day care center using handmade materials, donated carpet pieces for rugs, and Styrofoam meat trays donated from the grocery store for the trays on the shelves. There weren’t as many educational opportunities in my Montessori-oriented day-care classroom as in a Montessori school, but the positive change in the behavior of the children was the same change I see in children attending Montessori schools or Montessori homeschools.

LINKS FOR MAKING YOUR OWN MONTESSORI MATERIALS

Books and General Montessori DIY Links:

I have a list of all the DIY Montessori materials posts I’ve published here: DIY Montessori Materials.

The best book on making your own Montessori materials is Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years: The Pre-School Years by Elizabeth Hainstock. This is what I used to set up my Montessori classroom in a day care center.

If you want to make Montessori-based religious-education materials, I wrote a post on setting up a Godly Play classroom at home which has links to the books needed to make Montessori-based Godly Play materials.

Mont Home has photos for many DIY Montessori materials. Click on the links at the top of the page to find materials in each curriculum area.

Walk Beside Me has many DIY Montessori materials.

Making Montessori Ours has many DIY Montessori materials (see left sidebar).

There are Yahoo groups called Montessori Material Makers and Montessori By Hand especially to help with making your own Montessori materials.

The Little List has a page with links to both DIY Montessori materials and free Montessori printables.

Geometric Shapes and Shelf (shelf made using a hot glue gun – no nails or screws) – Photo by Noor Janan Homeschool

My post on free Montessori materials online has links for free materials which can be downloaded and printed out. I also have a number of posts on DIY Montessori materials (photo from Geometric Shapes and Shelf by Noor Janan Homeschool in my DIY Geometric Shape roundup post) with links to resources for making specific Montessori materials.

DIY Practical Life:

Montessori for Infants and Toddlers has directions for making dressing frames.

DIY Sensorial:

What DID We Do All Day? has a link-up list with LOTS of DIY Montessori sensorial materials and associated blogs.

DIY Baby Stuff has directions for making geometric insets.

DIY Language:

What DID We Do All Day? has a link-up list with LOTS of DIY Montessori language materials and associated blogs.

I wrote an article with lots of links for making sandpaper letters and alphabet boxes.

DIY Mathematics:

What DID We Do All Day? has a link-up list with LOTS of DIY Montessori math materials and associated blogs.

The Accidental Crafter has directions for making sandpaper numerals.

New Learning Culture has directions for making cards and counters.

I have a post with lots of links about making Montessori bead material.

DIY Cultural:

What DID We Do All Day? has a link-up list with LOTS of DIY Montessori cultural materials and associated blogs.

Here’s the link to all the other posts in the Montessori Homeschool Classroom and Materials series.

Have you made your own Montessori materials, or do you plan to try making your own Montessori materials?