Montessori Monday – Building a Flashlight and Pipe Building

Building a Flashlight (Photo by John Bowman from Montessori at Home)

Preschoolers often enjoy building activities that help with eye-hand coordination along with the concepts right, left, and “right is tight, left is loose.” An activity can be as simple as having a few different sizes of nuts and bolts in a basket for children to put together.

In the upcoming revised edition of John Bowman’s e-book Montessori at Home: The Complete Guide to Doing Montessori Early Learning Activities at Home, John has activities with nuts and bolts and a screwdriver board along with two practical life activities that are less commonly seen and are great ways to reinforce similar skills.

Building a Flashlight

Excerpt from Montessori at Home:

Flashlight Assembled (Photo by John Bowman from Montessori at Home)

Turn something we do without thinking into a self-contained activity that provides muscle control and coordination practice, sequencing, and a safe experience with electricity. Neat!

(Excerpt and photos used with permission from John Bowman. The “right is tight” and “left is loose” cards are printables in the new edition of Montessori at Home.)

Pipe Building

Excerpt from Montessori at Home:

Pipe Building (Photo by John Bowman from Montessori at Home)

Age Range 3-6

Goals of this Activity

• Exercise the small muscles of the hand and fingers in a new way
• Teach the concepts of right and left, and the “right is tight, left is loose‟ rule
• Allow the child to create free form pipe sculptures
• Reinforce the Activity Cycle

Materials Required

• A bowl or box
• 1” diameter male and female pipe fittings from the home improvement store. Get different lengths of pipe, curved and right angle elbows, caps, and T shaped pieces. Get at least 2-3 of each kind.

Presentation and Use

1. Have your child lay out a table mat to make a work space and bring the box with the pipe pieces to the mat.

2. Help your child as needed to get the hang of attaching the pieces together. Emphasize the “right is tight, left is loose‟ rule.

3. Let your child explore on her own.

4. When your child is done, she can take apart the pipe, put the bowl away, and put the mat away, completing the Activity Cycle.

Extending the Activity

• Run water through the pipe.
• Drop a small rock or a nut from the Nuts and Bolts activity into the finished pipe and work it down by turning and shifting the pipe. Stop at times before it comes out and see if your child can figure out where the object is in the pipe.

Pipe Building (Photo from Buttercup's Babies)

Visit Buttercup’s Babies for a parent’s account of doing the pipe building activity with her two boys, titled

“Plumbing: who knew it was fun and educational?”

This story nicely illustrates how activities can be extended to involve numerous interesting elements. This parent did a great job of helping her kids get the most from an activity they found highly interesting. Good job!

(Excerpt and photos used with permission from John Bowman and Gwen at Buttercup’s Babies.)

Montessori at Home is one of my sponsors, and I love the e-book’s 234 pages of ideas and extensions of activities that can be used easily at home or in any preschool environment.

UPDATE: The newly revised Montessori at Home e-book is available for only $8.95 for 296 pages with over 250 early-learning activities!

If you prefer a paperback, a condensed version of the eBook is available titled Help Your Preschooler Build a Better Brain: Early Learning Activities for 2-6 Year Old Children.

Request for Submissions of Montessori-Inspired Activities for E-Book

In case you haven’t already seen this, John Bowman and I are planning to put together a free e-book for our customers and all the contributors to the e-book. The e-book will be called Mom Bloggers Talk Montessori: Favorite Ideas and Activities.

If you’re a mom blogger who publishes Montessori-inspired activities (or a Montessori teacher/blogger even if you aren’t a mom), we’d love to have you submit 1-3 activities for our free e-book. We consider teachers to be in the like-a-mom-with-many-children blogger category! Please submit:

• One, two, or three favorite Montessori-inspired activities that you have posted on your blog
• Ideas on incorporating Montessori principles and activities into everyday family life or your best suggestion for parents just starting to do Montessori activities at home (Choose one or skip question)
• Your background in Montessori or how you got started in Montessori (choose one)

Please send the following information by Friday, September 30.

Name of Activity: 

Permission to use activity and photos from post (with link to your blog post and credit to you)

Curriculum Area(s): (Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics, or Cultural

Materials:

Link(s) to Instructions for Preparing and Presenting Activity (Can be in the blog post) or list step-by-step instructions

Post URL:

Blog URL (blog homepage):

Blog Name:

Your Name for Posting (how you want your name listed in the e-book):

Answers to Question(s):

Ideas on incorporating Montessori principles and activities into everyday family life or your best suggestion for parents just starting to do Montessori activities at home (Choose one or skip question)

Your background in Montessori or how you got started in Montessori (choose one)

By: _____________(name of blogger) is a ____________. She blogs about _____________ at __________________(name of blog).]

Attach a photo of yourself.

Please email your information and photo to both jbowmanbooks@gmail.com and debchitwood@livingmontessorinow.com.

Thanks so much!

Montessori Monday Link-Up

If you have some Montessori ideas/lessons to share, please link up below. Please also place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post.

My co-host, Nicole, at One Hook Wonder, won’t be able to post about her family’s Montessori activities until Tuesday. Be sure to check out her Montessori Monday post then. For now, please link up here!

Thanks for participating! (Note: If you have a giveaway on your blog, please add it to my Family-Friendly Giveaway Linky Page.)

Related posts:

1. Activity of the Week – Montessori-Inspired Bead-and-Pipe-Cleaner Valentine Math Activities
2. Montessori Monday – Open and Close
3. Montessori Monday – DIY Bead Bars
4. Montessori Monday – Table Setting
5. Montessori Monday – Activities with Marbles and Golf Tees