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Tag Archive: DIY Montessori materials

Activity of the Week – DIY Montessori Sound Cylinders

Written on July 25, 2011 by Deb Chitwood in Activities - Sensorial, Activity of the Week, Montessori Homeschool Classroom and Materials, Montessori Monday

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DIY Sound Bottles (Photo from A Bohemian Education)

If you want to prepare some Montessori materials for a homeschool or preschool, a sensorial material that can be created easily and inexpensively is a set of sound cylinders. Last week, I wrote about another great DIY project: DIY Montessori smelling bottles.

I had a DIY sound activity as the activity of the week in April with a cute Montessori-inspired Easter egg sound set from Elle Belle’s Bows. You can create a different sound set for year-round use for preschoolers in any environment.

A Bohemian Education used jars with lids and wrapped the jars in red and blue fabric to create sound bottles. (See photo at the top of the post.)

Sound Boxes (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Counting Coconuts purchased sound boxes. (The photo shows what the purchased materials would look like.) When writing about Montessori materials recently, Mari-Ann said she wishes she would have created her own.

There are a number of other items you can use to create your own sound boxes (or basket):

Maybe Montessori and Create both used a papier mache box set from Joann’s to create sound cylinders.

Sound Cylinders Using Containers from Cookie Decorating Sprinkles (Photo from Explore and Express)

Explore and Express used containers from cookie decorating sprinkles.

A Handmade Childhood used black film canisters to make sound cylinders.

DIY Sound Cylinders Made from Chocolate Pudding Containers (Photo from Kingdom of the Pink Princesses)

Kingdom of the Pink Princesses used chocolate pudding containers.

DIY Sound Bottles (Photo from Montessori MOMents)

Montessori MOMents used drinkable yogurt bottles.

Shannon’s Sharings used two different brands of drinkable yogurt bottles, which were the same except for different color lids.

Montessori Primary Guide has directions for presenting sound boxes.

Introductory Sound Activity

Simple Sound Lesson (Photo from To the Lesson!)

To the Lesson! has an introductory sound activity that’s wonderful as an activity before the sound cylinders to help with listening skills and to prepare children for other work with sensorial and science activities.

Check out my post on “How to Make Your Own Montessori Materials” with resources for making lots of other Montessori materials.

I’d love to hear about your DIY sound activities!

Tags: DIY Montessori materials, DIY Montessori sound cylinders, DIY sound activity, homeschool, Montessori Monday, Montessori-inspired, preschool, preschoolers, sound boxes

Activity of the Week – DIY Montessori Smelling Bottles

Written on July 18, 2011 by Deb Chitwood in Activities - Sensorial, Activity of the Week, Montessori Homeschool Classroom and Materials, Montessori Monday

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DIY Montessori Smelling Bottles (Photo from To the Lesson!)

If you have a Montessori homeschool classroom or are planning to start one in the fall, you’ve probably been focusing on finding and/or making Montessori materials. A Montessori sensorial material you can make easily and inexpensively for preschoolers at home (or school if you’re a preschool teacher) is a set of smelling bottles.

To the Lesson! has directions for making an attractive set from spice bottles.

DIY Montessori Smelling Bottles (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Counting Coconuts made another attractive set of smelling bottles using a different type of spice bottle.

Homeschool Mo also used glass bottles and extracts. She tells about her experiences with them as well.

Because some of the extracts used for the scents can be identified by sight, you will need a blindfold for the activity or could hide the cotton balls in muslin tea bags found in natural food stores (a suggestion in one of the comments at To the Lesson!).

September has easy-to-prepare DIY smelling bottles using baby food jars, colored construction paper to hide the jar contents, cotton flour sack cloth, and herbs.

Montessori Primary Guide and Montessori World have directions you can use to present the smelling bottles.

Smelling Bottle Extension (Photo from Leptir)

Leptir has a wonderful extension of the smelling bottles by matching the bottles with pictures of the fruits and plants that are the source of the extracts/essential oils.

I have a post on “How to Make Your Own Montessori Materials” with resources for making lots of other Montessori materials.

Have fun – and let me know about your DIY Montessori projects!

Linked with Mommy Club Resources and Solutions and Every Day Sensory Play.

Tags: DIY Montessori materials, DIY Montessori smelling bottles, homeschool, Montessori Monday, preschoolers, smelling bottles

Activity of the Week – Montessori Continent Boxes

Written on June 6, 2011 by Deb Chitwood in Activities - Cultural, Activity of the Week

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Objects for a South America Continent Box (Photo from Montessori Tidbits)

When your child is comfortable identifying continents on a world map, you can begin a study of an individual continent. Summer is a great time to travel, and it could be a time for you to start a Montessori-inspired trip around the world.

You could choose to study each continent for a week or a month, depending on how many materials you have and how in-depth you want to take the study. This is something that can be repeated as your child grows older, so you don’t need to have an extensive amount of materials to begin with, especially for a young child. You could just start with a simple introduction of a few materials for each continent this year.

I recommend starting with your own continent. Of course, if you’ll be visiting another continent this summer, you’ll want to be sure to introduce that continent before your trip. If you’re visiting another country within your continent, it’s helpful to have an individual tray with objects and photographs from that country.

Continent Map

South America Map with Moveable Pieces (Photo from Montessori Tidbits)

The wooden Montessori continent maps are beautiful, but they aren’t very practical for a homeschool. Still, it’s very helpful if you can find or make a puzzle map of the continent you’re studying.

If you can’t find an inexpensive puzzle map, you can always print out an inexpensive but attractive control map like the ones from Montessori Print Shop.

The Adventures of Bear made a continent map using a similar printout of a world map, but you could use the same technique to make a continent puzzle map for an individual continent.

In a continent box swap, Montessori Tidbits received a South America map with moveable pieces that were cut off the map and could be reattached with velcro. A map could be made for each continent using the same idea.

Montessori Continent Boxes

Africa Continent Bag (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Africa Places Tray (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Africa Animals Tray (Photo from Counting Coconuts)

Most people think of Montessori continent boxes, although baskets, bags, or trays can be used to display the materials of a specific continent. Continent boxes traditionally contain information, photographs, and objects related to the study of a particular continent. In a complete study of the world, you’ll end up with seven continent boxes (or bags if you use a system like that of Counting Coconuts). I like Counting Coconuts’ idea of having a continent box or bag with materials for the study of a specific continent but with only a couple of trays set out at a time to make the materials more visible and inviting for your child to use. For example, when studying Africa this month, Counting Coconuts showed a tray for places of Africa and a tray for animals of Africa on the shelves.

It’s good to find pictures and/or postcards of the flags, people, places, animals, plants, and culture of each continent. You can add specific categories such as the food, artwork, or musical instruments of a particular continent. Add any objects you can find to represent the continent such as plastic animals and plants, real money and stamps, souvenirs, miniature dolls in costume, small flags from countries of the continent – anything that will represent the continent you’re studying. Books about the individual continents are always helpful as well.

Both Montessori Print Shop and Montessori for Everyone have beautiful materials that can be purchased for each continent.

Montessori Materials has free animal cards for each continent and Australia nomenclature cards.

The Little List has links to a number of free materials for continent boxes.

Peacefulman Geography Montessori and More has some helpful links.

Ideas for Montessori Continent Boxes from around the Blogosphere

There’s a wonderful variety of ideas online for studying individual continents. Some homeschoolers even had a continent box swap. I’ll give links to a number of sites. Sometimes the category of posts will include other geography materials as well. Here are some great ideas for a Montessori study of continents:

3-Part Cards with Foods Typical of Europe (Photo from Leptir)

LaPaz Home Learning

Montessori Tidbits

Counting Coconuts

Discovery Days and Montessori Moments

Montessori for Everyone

Mens Sana

Sunrise Learning Lab

Little Acorns

Leptir

Mondorfment

The Adventures of Bear

Thoughts from a Homemaker’s Heart

Krazy Kuehner Days

Child and Me Continent Box Swap for Asia, Europe, and Arctic/Antarctica

Don’t be intimidated by the examples of complete and lovely Montessori continent boxes. Just start where you can and add gradually. Most of all, have fun exploring the world with your child!

Please share your posts and what you’ve done to study continents and/or countries at our Living Montessori Now Community! We’d love to hear about your geography studies!

Tags: continent map, DIY Montessori materials, geography, Montesori continent map, Montessori continent boxes, Montessori continents

Montessori-Inspired Fun with Land and Water Forms

Written on October 17, 2010 by Deb Chitwood in Activities - Cultural, Teach/Learn

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Welcome to the October Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival.

The Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival hosted by Science@home is for anyone, because we are all teachers and learners all the time. This month our theme is “Studies of Society and the Environment” which covers all the humanities, from history to finance, geography, politics and of course the environment. Check out the links at the bottom to find some other great posts on SOSE.

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Whether you’re teaching at home or school, you can add Montessori activities for a geography unit on land and water forms. Not only are there hands-on materials children can work with, but there’s even a Montessori-inspired treat for an end-of-unit celebration.

In Montessori education, land and water forms typically include island and lake, peninsula and gulf, cape and bay, system of lakes and archipelago, and isthmus and strait. Children begin working with hands-on land and water forms from ages 2½ and up.

You can purchase ready-made land and water forms from one of the Montessori material suppliers, or you can make your own.

DIY Montessori Land and Water Forms

Here’s a very helpful post from What Did We Do All Day? about what not to do and what works in making your own landforms: How NOT to Make Your Own Geography Materials Part Three, Landforms (again)

Here’s another set of homemade land and water forms from Shannon’s Sharings: Landforms.

Here are land and water forms from Walk Beside Me: Land and Water Forms.

Here are some land and water forms from Itsy Bitsy Spider that show variations on how they can be used: Land and Water Forms.

To make your own land and water forms, you’ll probably want to read each post and decide which way would work best for you.

Land and Water Form Extensions and Directions

Montessori Materials has some great land and water form downloads. Note: The land form cards donated by Tiffany are the 3-part cards I printed out and used for the photo.

Info Montessori has an introduction to Montessori geography, which includes how to present land and water form trays and cards.

Monteaco has a free culture album which includes land and water forms, cards, and definitions.

Leptir has helpful photos and printable cards for land and water forms.

Suite101.com has an article by Andrea Coventry with many activities for Montessori land and water forms, including having children create their own land and water forms with brown modeling clay in blue trays. Be sure to check out the helpful photos at the end of the article! Here’s another article by Andrea Coventry with Montessori land and water form definitions.

For the most thorough description of how to introduce land and water forms and activities to extend the study of land and water forms, sign up for my mailing list to receive the free American Montessori Society Geography Album by Karen Tyler. It’s a 177-page album covering Montessori geography activities for ages 2½-6.

When you’re finished with your unit on land and water forms, you can celebrate with a fun Montessori-inspired activity I found at Ashland Montessori School: creating land and water forms on graham crackers using blue icing. If you’d like a more natural version of the icing, blend together 8 ounces of cream cheese, ¼ cup honey, and ½ tsp. vanilla. Add blue food coloring, either purchased or a natural, homemade food dye.

Have fun with Montessori-inspired geography!

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Visit Science@home to find out more about the Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival.

Please take the time to visit the other participants and check out their posts on “Studies of Society and the Environment.”

The Planning Queen has pulled together some of the many great sources that you can use to keep kids up to date with world news.
SMMART Ideas is writing about how your 2 year old isn’t too young to learn the names and locations of the state she lives in and those around her…or even countries of the world!
For Adventures with Kids, photos can provide a great starting point for telling or discovering history, from family history to world history. Find out some questions to ask about the photos to get you started and where you can find historical images.
Narelle at A Bunch of Keys has been having lots of fun learning all about volcanoes and how they work.
Monique at Your Cheeky Monkey knows that kids are fascinated with igloos – how they are built and why they don’t melt. We investigate why!
Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now has a fun treat to celebrate the end of a geography unit on land and water forms.
At Homeage, almost every day they get another piece of the world delivered to their door, helping them learn about where and how other people live.
Deb’s girls at Science@home have been building their family tree and talking about all their relationships.

Thanks for visiting our carnival, have fun reading all the posts.

Tags: DIY Montessori materials, geography, land and water forms, landforms, Montessori, Montessori-inspired

How to Make Your Own Montessori Materials

Written on September 23, 2010 by Deb Chitwood in Fantastic Finds, Montessori Homeschool Classroom and Materials

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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:

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.

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 with links to resources for making specific Montessori materials.