12 Months of Montessori Learning 2015 Post Round Up

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12 months of montessori learning

January: Practical Life
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February: Geography
World - Control Maps, Masters and Labels

March: Language Arts
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April: Botany
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May: Sensorial
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June: Zoology
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July: Music
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August: Montessori Spaces
4

September: Mathematics
3

October: Biology
3

November: History
3

December: Fine Arts
1

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Montessori Madness ~ 2 Simple DIY Pegging activities

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Pixie LOVES pegging activities. These activities are relatively easy and inexpensive to make. Pegging activities for great for building finger strength, pincer grip and fine motor skills. Here are Simple DIY Pegging activities.

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Materials required:
Bamboo Pegs
Dot Paints

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This activity is quick and easy to make. I painted the botton half of each peg (2 pegs per colour) for use with matching coloured pompoms.

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Materials required:
Bamboo Pegs

Coloured Cardboard

(Coloured paper will also work)
Circle Paper Punch

Small Square Paper Punch

Craft Glue

Clear Nail Varnish

Graphite Pencil

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Punch out equal number of circles and squares. One set (one square and one circle) per colour.

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Glue a square on each peg.
Number the back of each peg and corresponding circle. This can double as a number recognition/sequencing activity.
Using the nail varnish, paint over each number on the pegs. This will prevent the numbers from rubbing off.

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I have these two activities stored in little plastic baskets which are easy for Pixie to manage.

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Montessori Madness: Easter Centres

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I have been struggling with what to do with the kidlets for our Easter Centres next week. Fifi’s BFF will be spending the next 3 weeks with us and this is a great centre to put together for all the kidlets to keep them occupied during the school holidays. I have found some GREAT online inspiration and decided to share these finds on Montessori Madness this week.

Free Easter Egg Printables and Montessori-Inspired Easter Egg Activities from Living Montessori now
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Here is a great list of links full of freebies for Easter

20 Fine Motor & Sensory Kids Activities for Easter from Golden Reflections Blog
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…Lots of great ideas here for toddlers all the way up to elementary school age kiddos.

Easter Sensory Bin for Toddlers from Golden Reflections Blog
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…So this Easter sensory bin was actually ready to go last month. I love being able to plan ahead a little bit!…

DIY Pom Pom Bunny from Fab DIY
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Pom Pom bunnies are really cute and when it comes to Easter or just making a gift this one may be something that you would want to try. You can use any color pom poms you want and you can make the bunny as big as you want. You may need about 25 minutes to get everything going and then you can give this bunny to someone as a nice gift.

Montessori Easter Activities: Ukrainian Easter Eggs in Culture and Science Curriculum from NAMC
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Easter is a wonderful holiday to be celebrated in the Montessori classroom; there are beautiful signs of spring, bright colors, energetic children, and the excitement of the school year ahead. If you are searching for Montessori Easter activities, why not introduce your class to Ukrainian Easter eggs? Also called Pysanky, they are a unique art form that celebrates a rich culture. This post has Ukrainian Easter egg information and activities that can be used in both preschool and elementary classrooms, as well as a complimentary printable that you and your students will love working with!

23 Easter Printables from The DIY Dreamer
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Here is a list of tons and tons of Easter Printables

Free Montessori Inspired Cards: Easter Around the World from Montessori Nature
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Montessori Easter Around the World Printable Flashcards contain six sets of cards with photos representing different Easter traditions of Australia/Oceania, South America, North America, Europe, Africa and Asia with short commentary.

Easter Activities from Counting Coconuts
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Here are trays featuring the following activities:
Practical life
Maths
Sensorial
Letters
Misc activities

Practical life from Counting Coconuts
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This is a great example on how to incorporate a practical life try to fit with the Easter theme. I need one of those egg slices!

Montessori Inspired Easter Activities from Carrots are Orange
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Here are a few “back to the basics” Montessori Inspired Easter activities. With their lovely colors and texture, we used jelly beans as our base material with which to work, which, in all honesty was a little challenging given their sweet goodness. Keep an almost 3 year old from popping a few in his mouth and I will send you a medal!

Montessori Monday – Montessori-Inspired Easter Activities from Living Montessori Now
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Easter will be here in a few weeks! It’s a perfect time to prepare some Montessori-inspired spring/Easter activities!

Easter Egg Potato Stamping Craft for Kids from Crafty Morning
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Got any potatoes going bad? We did so we thought we’d try to make Easter egg potato stamps! It actually turned out great and could be used to make homemade Easter cards, etc.

Pin the Tail on the Bunny from From ABCs to ACTs
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Think back on your childhood for a minute. Remember all of those birthday parties you went to when you were little? The cake, the party hats, the games.

It didn’t matter if the party was being held for a boy or a girl, had a princess theme or revolved around superheroes, it almost always included a game of pin the tail on the donkey (or at least some variation of it).

And transferred eggs with the tongs from Nurturning Learning
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Montessori Monday – Easter Egg Rainbow Practical Life and Sensorial Activity from Living Montessori now
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I had fun putting together a practical life and sensorial activity for Easter. It also includes a rainbow theme. I’m calling it an Easter egg rainbow.

Easter Activity for Kids: Bunny Tails Color Matching from Twodaloo
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I love Easter activities. Although I normally love activities using natural materials, I especially enjoy preparing activities using plastic Easter eggs because they’re so affordable and adaptable (and just plain fun). They’re great for almost any type of learning activity before Easter.

Montessori-Inspired Easter Egg Activities Using Free Printables from PreK + K Sharing
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I love Easter activities. Although I normally love activities using natural materials, I especially enjoy preparing activities using plastic Easter eggs because they’re so affordable and adaptable (and just plain fun). They’re great for almost any type of learning activity before Easter.

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Montessori Madness ~ Montessori in a Caravan

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One of my readers asked me to share ideas on how to Montessori in a caravan. Though I have yet to find any information dedicated directly to the subject, I have written a post on Montessori Space at Home before and I have found a few great resources on how to Montessori in a tiny space.

How to Set Up a Montessori Space at Home from Living Montessori Now.
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Setting up a Montessori space at home is something any parent can do – because it can be designed to fit any home and any family. A Montessori space is especially helpful for toddlers and preschoolers, but it’s helpful at the elementary level as well.

Setting Up a Small Montessori Space
For many families and grandparents, a small Montessori space will be ideal. I know that’s my plan for when I have grandkids. The two essentials for me would be a child-sized table and chair(s) and a low shelving unit for materials. I would also save a low kitchen cupboard for a child’s food-preparation utensils and dishes.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Introduction and Entryway from Trillium Montessori
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Montessori Setup in a Small Space
The Montessori Method is versatile in so many beautiful ways. The world is the classroom and even a small space can be used to engage young learners. I would love to show you some of the ways we have our small space Montessori setup with Montessori At Home Mondays five part series. Check back each Monday in the month of September where I will give you a tour of our small space Montessori setup.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Kitchen and Wrap Up from Trillium Montessori
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When doing Montessori homeschool setup in a small space everything you have gets used in multiple ways. Often I perched on a stool next to this table to be with the kids are their level. They had so much pride in being able to complete tasks with ease because of the smaller size materials. I would encourage you to make a table a priority in your setup.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Kitchen and Wrap Up from How We Montessori
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Getting his materials from a kitchen drawer. He also has the drawer above this one for his other/baking materials. While we were travelling we really missed him having access to his own kitchen materials and food. I think I heard a million times ‘I’m hungry’ ‘I’m thirsty’. We rarely hear this at home as he can fix these things for himself.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Kitchen and Wrap Up from How We Montessori
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This space is a great example of order. Notice how there aren’t too many things in the drawer, it’s not overcrowded, every item can be found with a quick look and there is a specific place for everything. I also love the towel taped on the bottom of the drawer…

Montessori Home Spaces: Tips Room by Room from Racheous Lovable Learning
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For those just starting out with Montessori at home, I thought I would share some advice for organising their environment. There are several things to think about each space and room in the home. I hope I can share how to best set up your home to facilitate independence. This is primarily applicable to the younger years.

Camping items that are usefull for storage and practical life activities

Camp cover spice rack
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These spice racks are perfect for storing your small items, such as tongs, tweezers, small bottles, ziplock bags with pompoms, etc.

Whitmor clip and drip hanger with 26 clips
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Pixie has one of these that she uses when she is helping me hang up the laundry outside. They are perfect for small cloths, socks, etc.
Natural Instincts 3 tier deluxe cupboard
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These canvas cupboards are easy to assemble and fold away when they are not in use. There are 3 shelves that can house your little one’s trays. On the side is a small pouch perfect for storing small items that can be used with the trays. The top can house a bigger items that do not fit on the shelves.

Natural Instincts 4 Shelf Folding Cupboard
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These canvas cupboards are easy to assemble and fold away when they are not in use. There are 4 shelves that can house your little one’s trays. The top can house several bigger items that do not fit on the shelves.

Many of these items are available for sale at online classifieds such as Gumtree.co.za and Gumtree Australia.

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12 Months of Montessori Learning ~ January: Practical Life

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I will be following along with Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool this year in their 12 Months of Montessori Learning series. What a fun way to document the different aspects of the Montessori Method on a monthly basis!

January’s theme was Practical Life. This is, most probably, my favourite activity for the kidlets.

This month, Pixie learned to paint her own finger nails, cut an apple with a apple slicer and grate soap on a cheese grater. My sister in law gave each of the girls a bottle of nail polish (a favourite activity that the girls and I love doing together) and Pixie decoded to decorate her own nails. I purchased the inexpensive apple slicer and grater at the Crazy store. The apple slicer and grater are also available on Amazon.

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Fifi baked cupcakes for our joint birthday party. She used the Pillsbury Traditional Cake Mix. I measured out all the wet ingredients and supervised the mixing. She didn’t want to try putting it in the oven, so I did that for her. She then proceeded to decorate them all by herself with the Pillsbury ready mix frosting in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. I spooned the frosting into a cupcake decorating bottles to minimise the mess.

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Koko is a Cub Scout and what better way to earn you cooking badge than to bake his favourite chocolate chip cookies, cook us dinner, braai (BBQ) for the family and make tea for Momma. I measured out all the wet ingredients and supervised the mixing. He does this all on his own following the recipe. We make the cookies in cupcake liners to keep them all in a uniform shape.

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Montessori Madness Roundup

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In this week’s Montessori Madness post, we are going to have a quick look at all the Montessori Madness posts to date.

1. Resource Directory
I am a member of a Facebook group called Montessori Moms (link below the post) and these mommas have the most amazing list of resources that were just begging to be put into one, easily accessible, place. Click HERE to read more.

2. DIY Montessori Ideas
Fellow Montessori Momma, Joanita, sent me this great email with all the DIY Montessori items she has made and implemented for her beautiful daughter, Daniela. Click HERE to read more

3. 11 Favourite “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” Online Resources
We L.O.V.E. the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We have spent the last month exploring this book and I have found the most amazing online resources that I just have to share with you all. Click HERE to read more.

4. DIY Montessori Roundup
Being an, unintentional, Montessori Mom, I’ve often found that the Montessori equipment can be rather pricy. I have scoured high and low for tutorials on DIY Montessori materials and this is what I have Found on the net. Here are so many great resources out there, you just have to know where to look. Click HERE to read more.

5. How do I Montessori at home without breaking the bank?
This is a question that gets asked many times by “newbies” to the Montessori method. In the beginning I found this question difficult to ask, HOWEVER, in my research over the years, I have found the following: Click HERE to read more.

6. Practical Life Tasks and Activities
One of the points I made in last week’s post, How do I Montessori at home without breaking the bank?, was “Montessori is a way of life”. This week I’m going to share simple and practical tasks you can have your child do around the house to help teach responsibility. Click HERE to read more.

7. Montessori Space at Home
We live in a small town house. Our school area is in our living room and is tiny and as a result, I’ve had to modify our Montessori space quite significantly. We had a little shoe shelf that I converted into a tray shelf for the girls to share. It was too small so I added a small 2 tier wooden shelf on wheels (it used to stand in our bedroom with a TV on it). Click HERE to read more.

8. Astronomy Resources
Koko wants to be an ASTROPHYSICIST when he grows up and has shown tremendous interest in Astronomy. At first I didn’t know what resources to provide him since he is only 7, but he has read his Space Fact book from cover to cover numerous times. Click HERE to read more.

9. DIY Threading Activities
I saw this great threading activity a while ago and decided to make it for Pixie. It is easy to make. This makes a perfect threading activity for Montessori trays. Click HERE to read more.

10. Sewing Kits and Trays
I’ve made Fifi a sewing basket with different shapes (the same shapes I used for Pixie’s silly straw threading activity, with a few modifications. Click HERE to read more.

11. Play Dough Trays
Pixie struggles terribly with insomnia and its not unheard of for her to be up till 2 in the morning. She shares a bedroom with Fifi and to keep her from waking her during a bad sleeping period (which can last up to a month) I keep her with me in the living room. A few weeks ago, we decided to start her on a regimen of homeopathic remedies to help her sleep, its slow going, but she slept through for 2 nights in a row! Click HERE to read more.

12. What is a Light Table?
What is a light table? A light table is an illuminated table, panel, or box. They are used for learning and exploring different educational toys and materials, as therapy for autistic, sight impaired and other special needs children, for artists to draw and trace on, for Doctors to view X-Rays, and widely used as an educational staple in Reggio Emilia based schools. ~ Kristen from Caution! Twins at Play. Click HERE to read more.

13. Montessori Inspired Bedrooms
I would LOVE to create Montessori Inspired Bedrooms for the kidlets. However, space is a huge issue right now with 2 children each sharing a small bedroom. I have found the most amazing inspiration on the internet and will be using some of these awesome ideas if and when the opportunity presents itself. Click HERE to read more.

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