Montessori Activity: Cutting Red Pepper Bell with Knife

Age: From 5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills
2. To encourage your child to help out in the kitchen

Materials:

1. 1 bowl of red pepper bell cut ready for your child to cut into smaller pieces
2. 1 empty bowl
3. 1 small knife
4. 1 chopping board

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child by cutting the mushrooms slice-by-slice.

2. Then assist your child to hold the knife correctly.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Video Demonstration:

Additional Information:

Inspired by A, our Little FECS (5Y9M28D) helped me to cut the red pepper bell today for dinner :-)

Montessori Activity: Measuring Playdough with Ruler

Idea from Tot School

Age: From 4 years old

Objectives:
1. To familiarize your child to the function and use of a ruler.
2. To teach measuring with ruler.
3. To practise cutting and fine motor skills.

Materials:
1. 1 ruler
2. 1 Table knife
3. 1 playdough
4. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Explain to your child the length of the ruler, that it is 30 cm long.
2. Ask your child to roll out the playdough into a long piece to match the length of the ruler (periodically encourage your child to compare her playdough to the ruler to see if it is as long as the ruler.)
3. When the playdough reach the corret length, line it in-line with the ruler.
4. Demonstrate by cutting the playdough into 2-cm pieces by slowing moving your knife to the 2-cm mark and lower to cut the playdough.
5. Put aside the 2-cm piece and bring the playdough in-line to the left side of the ruler again.
6. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:
It is the Easter holidays, and I find my activities running out at a much faster rate. It is at night. Joshua is asleep, and I am now indulging in my hobby to setting up activities for Joshua. Nothing makes me more alive and happy than doing all these! I found this fantastic activity from another Blog mom called Tot School, who found this activity from a book called Montessori at Home by John Bowman. This activity is probably too advanced for Joshua, but my objective is not that he knows what 2 cm is, but that he gets familiarize with the function of a ruler, and have fun exploring it with playdough. I am excited to let Joshua try it tomorrow.

Here is another good book by John Bowman on fun and educational activities:

References:
- http://totschool.shannons.org/?p=4158
- Montessori at Home by John Bowman

Montessori Activity: Cutting Button Mushrooms with Butter Knife/Skære Champignon/切蘑菇

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills
2. To encourage good eating habits.

Materials:

1. 1 bowl of button mushrooms
2. 1 empty bowl
3. 1 butter knife
4. 1 chopping board

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child by cutting the mushrooms slice-by-slice.

2. Then assist your child to hold the knife correctly.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Video Demonstration:

Additional Information:

J had mushroom pizza for dinner yesterday. Today, we went to the supermarket. J saw a packet of very fresh white button mushrooms and wanted it. I requested  him to put it back, as he has never liked button mushrooms. I took the oyster mushrooms that he usually likes instead. However, he wanted to put back the oyster mushrooms instead.

J brought home the white button mushrooms, and an idea came to my mind that hey, the texture, softness and firmness make these mushroom a very suitable item for practicing cutting with knife. So even if J didn't eat it, at least it would have served some purpose, for the money I paid.

J (2Y6M26D) helped me to prepare the lunch by cutting the mushrooms, and he did it very well, although of course, at this age, the size of the cut was not consistent. But he managed to cut all the 3 mushrooms I gave to him rather well.

Montessori Activity: Cutting Fruits with Butter Knife/Skære frugter/切水果 [qiē shuǐ guǒ]

J trying the pear which he cut himself

Age: From 1.5 year old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills
2. To encourage good eating habits.

Materials:
1. 2 pears (1 for you and 1 for your child)
2. 1 butter knife
3. 1 chopping board

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child by cutting the pear slowly one slice by one slice.

2. Then assist your child to hold the knife correctly.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Video Demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enlFg35MKLU&feature=related

Additional Information:

I like to start with pear, as it is soft and easier to cut, and at the same time, it is not slippery like other fruit such as mango. J (2Y21D) tried this today for the real first time and he enjoyed it. I had hope that it will encourage him to eat more fruit and more pears, but it hasn't really worked that way today. He couldn't resist trying the bit of pear that he cut himself, but he didn't continue eating the whole pear.

If you don't have the time to supervise closely, you can also use cutting fruit toy to start with, if you don't want to use a butter knife and real fruits. We play this activity with both, sometimes toys, sometimes real fruit. You can get the cutting fruit toys from Amazon:

http://amzn.to/1UnrJIs