Practical life activities make up one of the most important areas of Montessori education, helping with order, concentration, coordination, and independence. And most preschoolers LOVE practical life activities that involve food preparation!
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Here are some Montessori-inspired food preparation ideas found online:
Andrea Coventry had some helpful introductory words in a site that’s no longer available:
“Food prep is a great practical life activity. The children learn self care as they wash their hands. They develop independence as they learn to prepare food. They improve fine motor skills as they prepare the food. They practice grace and courtesy as they offer the food to share with their friends.”
Here’s one of Andrea Coventry’s food preparation articles: Ideas for a Preschool Kitchen Center.
Food Preparation Area (Photo from How We Montessori)
Food Preparation Area from How We Montessori.
Cutting Vegetables (Photo from How We Montessori)
How We Montessori has many other food preparation posts in the practical life category, such as the Kids Cutting post.
I have a “Cutting a Banana Practical Life activity for Toddlers.”
I have other food preparation activitie, such as ants on a log, in my Kids in the Kitchen category.
I also have healthy recipes for kids and families, such as my healthy, yummy, gluten-free blueberry muffin recipe in my Kids in the Kitchen category.
“Toddler Day Care -Montessori influenced -pretty food” Video from Monarch Montessori Ministry
Montessori Activities for Toddlers: Food Preparation from Daily Montessori
Toddler Knife Skills from The Montessori Motherload
Independent Food Preparation: My Toddler Can Do That? from Montessori Moments
Food Preparation using a Child-Sized Rolling Pin (Photo from Vibrant Wanderings)
Practical Life with a Toddler: Naturally! (photo) and Kids in the Kitchen: Finding the Right Tools from Vibrant Wanderings
Montessori at Home: Toddlers in the Kitchen from Bluebirdkisses
Favorite Recipes for Preschoolers are Often the Easiest (my post)
Activity of the Week – Homemade Ice Cream Right Now! No Machine Required! (my post linking to a post from Simply Montessori)
Learning to Share from MariaMontessori.com
Serve-Yourself Snack Gives You More Freedom from Awake Parent Perspectives
Montessori in the Kitchen from Life in a Pink House
Cherry Pitting Activity (Photo from Counting Coconuts)
Carrot Peeling, Egg Slicing, Cherry Pitting, Whisking Eggs and Sorting Grapes, Our Snack Break – Food and Set-Up, Snack Time, Watermelon Snack, and Daily Food Chart from Counting Coconuts
Food Chart from Noor Janan Homeschool.
Montessori-inspired making-applesauce activity (above video) from O’ Boy Organic Blog.
Peeling Tangerines (Photo from Leptir)
Squeezing lemons and oranges, peeling tangerines and fruit cutting from Leptir
Peeling Carrots (Photo from The Moveable Alphabet) – blog no longer available
Making Pizza (Photo by Julie at The Adventures of Bear)
Making zucchini carrot muffins, Montessori Toddler Activities (including preparing snack and making pizza – photo), Slicing and peeling hard-boiled eggs, baking with a toddler, squeezing oranges and making honeydew melon “ice cream,” and making granola for snack time from Nurturing Learning
Making Yeast Pancakes from Early Education with Antek and Kuba (use Google Translate from the blog’s right sidebar)
For Small Hands has many inexpensive child-size tools to use at home.
Kids’ Food Fun Pinterest Board
I have many links to fun food ideas for kids that can often be used to create Montessori-oriented food preparation activities in my Kids’ Food Fun Pinterest board.
What are your child’s favorite food preparation activities?
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What an incredible collection of resources and ideas. Thank you, Deb! I keep meaning to say that I love the way you’re using pinboards to enhance what you do on your site. I can’t imagine a more helpful way for you to share the wealth of resources you find with the rest of us!
Thanks so much, Melissa! I LOVE Pinterest for collecting and sharing ideas! It’s especially great for visual learners, like me. 🙂
Wow! Great list of resources! I love the idea of Montessori, but have never gone further into it because it looks so structured! I love your links though. Plenty to go through. Thanks!
Thanks, Luschka! Montessori can be taught rigidly, but there are many progressive Montessorians who only use the amount of structure young children need to feel secure and organize their own minds and learning. 🙂
Excellent post, Deb! Superb resources list, as always. Kitchens rock for Montessori!
Thanks, John! I totally agree that “kitchens rock for Montessori!” 🙂
Thank you for sharing all of those links! Kieran *loves* having access to helping in the kitchen – and he also loves the things that are just his size (the apron I made him, etc.).
Thanks, Dionna! Kids are definitely natural in the kitchen, especially when they have child-size tools. And how great that you made Kieran an apron! 🙂
Beautiful! Do you take part with this post to my Love of Learning about food and learning? Would you link this post by Mr Linky bottom in the end of post? (sorry for my english…). Thank you!
p.s. Your pinterest board are very interesting… I mean to do a theme linky party in my blog… I hope that you take part in it.
Thanks so much, Palmy! I love the idea of using food for learning. Great link up … I linked up my post! 🙂
What a lovely resource, thanks so much for compiling all these wonderful links. I have bookmarked it and pinned it 🙂 As my son is still a bit small for all the tasks… but I plan to come back to it in the future!
Thanks, Christine! I appreciate you bookmarking and pinning my post. It’s wonderful that you’re planning ahead. 🙂
Thank you for all the great information! I did run into a recent issue that I would love your thoughts on. I have struggled with the idea of making food continually accessible to my 3 (almost 4) year old. I setup food prep supplies and some basics in a low accessible cabinet (very similar to the “How We Montessori” photo). I also provided a low shelf in a small fridge with items like cheese, yogurt, fruit, milk in a small pitcher, etc. My hope was that she would prepare her own snacks. She actually did a wonderful job, even cleaning up after herself (we slowly worked through preparing each option). The problem is that she began serving herself continuously to the point of rejecting meals. How have others approached open access to food? I have changed my strategy and now only supply enough food for one snack at a time. While this has solved the issue, I can’t help but wonder what I’m doing wrong when I read about a number of a families who have had success with a continual access setup. Thank you!
Thanks for your comment, Bess! It sounds like you’ve found a good solution. It’s always important to adapt for your own child. What you’re doing is similar to what is done in Montessori schools. Typically, children are allowed one snack during the class. They can choose a specified number of pieces of fruit or whatever. They still have free choice in when they decide to have their snack and sometimes in which part of the snack they choose to eat. I hope that helps. 🙂
Hey Deb, Thanks for the link and for the awesome list of resources. I will be referring to this time and again for sure. My 15mo. old daughter is excited to try stirring and might be ready for a first cutting activity!
My pleasure, Shelly – and thanks for your kind comment! I love your daughter’s age – so many fun times and activities now and in the future! 🙂
Oh! I just remembered I had a question. We have dogs and cats at home, so I’m very confused about how we can provide snack at a level our daughter can reach that will be free of animal germs. Any thoughts on that one?
I think a lot of people just provide one or two low shelves within a closed kitchen cabinet or in the refrigerator. Do you have a kitchen cabinet that would work for that?
Oh! THANK YOU. Why didn’t I think of that? I do have a low drawer that is already designated for her. What a great solution!
Glad you have something that will work, Shelly! Happy 11-11-11! 🙂
Wow, what an incredible wealth of resources on a topic I know almost nothing about, Montessori education, really fascinating. Will dip into the resources over the next few days. My lot are at a steiner school which obviously is a bit different, but I really love to learn other methods and theories about raising kids in a lovely way, thankyou.
Thank you so much for your comment! There are lots of parents who use a combination of Montessori and Steiner methods. It’s great that you’re open-minded about finding what’s right for your family! 🙂
That’s a lot of links! I haven’t had time to look at them all yet, but I’m excited to go through them because I have a feeling I’ll find some new food prep activities to put in my classroom. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Megan! I had a great time finding all the links. I hope you find some new activities you can use! 🙂
Wow, wonderful information! I’ll email my sister a link she’ll love this! I love the pic of the little one making pizza, how cute! Have a great night Deb!
Thanks so much, Sheila! I really appreciate you emailing your sister a link! The pizza-making photo is adorable, isn’t it?! I hope you have a great rest of the week! 🙂
What an incredible resource! I agree that kids love when they feel competent in the kitchen. You’re inspiring me to make a setup like the beautiful one in that top photo!
Thanks, Lauren! Isn’t that setup beautiful?! How We Montessori has a lot of amazing food preparation posts! 🙂
The first photo in this post blew me away – I so want to set this up NOW! I think my children will really appreciate being able to access their own foods although my 2yo is in a throwing stage right now so we’ll have to be a little cautious! I look forward to hearing your answer to the question asked by Bess as I don’t want snacking to interfere with mealtimes! I’ll be going through lots of these links soon.
Thanks for your comment, Terri! The first photo is definitely amazing! You might like a setup similar to one used in Montessori schools as well (like I mentioned in answer to Bess’s question). 🙂
This is my favorite post of yours yet. So perfect for getting into the baking and holiday season. I have a feeling the boys will be helping with a lot of food prep and table setting. 🙂
Thanks for your very kind comment, Lori! I can imagine your boys will be an awesome help! 🙂
Deb, thanks for sharing my activities 🙂
My pleasure, Nataša … and thanks for sharing your wonderful activities! I always enjoy reading your posts! 🙂
Thanks for adding a link to my post! I’m a new blogger and this is all very exciting to me 🙂
Great post, Megan … I’m happy to share it! 🙂
Thanks for all the wonderful tips… I’m working on my kitchen right now and this gave me some ideas on how to make it more accessible for my son!
Thanks, Laura! I’m so glad you found some ideas that will work for your son! Happy 11-11-11! 🙂
Our toddler loves preparing his own food here. You’ve packed this full of Montessori methods and links to encourage parents to let their children learn through preparing their own foods. Nice collection of links.
Thanks so much! I had a great time searching for the resources online! Happy 11-11-11! 🙂
I’m thrilled that I found you on the Blog Frog. I’m excited to find a Montessori site! I really love the idea of teaching my daughter things through Montessori toys. I hope you’ll follow back at http://www.mommywithselectivememory.blogspot.com.
Thanks so much for your comment! I’m so glad you found me, too! I’ll look forward to getting to know you better. If you ever have any Montessori activities you’d like to share, please join us in linking up for Montessori Monday! (I have a linky here each Monday that’s open throughout the week.) 🙂