Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

Creating a Reading Corner

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I’m so excited about our new reading corner! It’s simple but works perfectly for the space I have.
 
Creating a Reading Corner
 
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We added a floating shelf, which I’m using for a featured character trait or character education theme. Right now, we’re having a friendship theme for back to school, so I have three books about friendship and inclusion.
 
Reading Corner Shelf with Welcome Books for a Friendship Theme

Reading Corner Shelf with Welcome Books for a Friendship Theme

Right now, I have Welcoming Words: A Sesame Street Language Guide for Making Friends (with an emphasis on welcoming words in a variety of languages), All Are Welcome(one of my favorite books! Read more about it in my Peace Books post.) and We All Belong: A Children’s Book About Diversity, Race, and Empathy on the shelf. Even though I don’t have a classroom, a welcoming, inclusive worldview is one I want to give to my grandchildren.

You can see more of our friendship books in my post with free friendship printables and Montessori-inspired friendship activities.

Our chair is a Gamersac Lovesac, which is super comfy. There are some great beanbag chairs for kids on Amazon, too. It really depends on your space and how your reading corner will be used. With my grandkids, there are often two sharing the Lovesac. You don’t need as big of a chair if it will typically be used by only one child.
 
Reading Corner with Friendship and Inclusion Books

Reading Corner with Friendship and Inclusion Books

 
Our reading corner is next to our new peace table, which has a circular top for a featured book and a basket for a variety of books. Right now I have The Peace Rose on the top to focus on conflict resolution and mainly friendship and kindness books in the basket. I usually find my grandkids reading books from the peace table book basket when they’re in the reading corner. Yay!
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Deb Chitwood | Montessori (@livingmontessorinow)

We all love our new reading corner! (Note: In the video, Sophia has the book Stick and Stone, and Caleb has the book Daniel Finds a New Friend.) 
 
Thanks to my daughter, Chrissy Chitwood, for putting this video together! And to Sophia and Caleb for showing how our reading corner is used!
 
Here’s our reading corner/peace corner for the week of International Day of Peace September 21:
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Deb Chitwood | Montessori (@livingmontessorinow)

In the video, Zoey is reading the book Everybody Says Shalom to Sophia, and Caleb is reading the book Light a Candle for Peace (with the song lyrics and simple sign language images). We like to participate in singing peace around the world.

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