Montessori Activity: Letter Pasta Sensory Box

Age: From 1 year old

Objective:
1. To stimulate your child's five senses

Materials:
1. 1 transparent box
2. Base materials made of 4 packets of pasta
3. 26 letter magnets
4. 1 bowl and 1 ladle (optional)

Directions:
1. Invite your baby to pick the box off the shelf to the floor, helping her along the way.
2. Invite your baby to dig into it.
3. If she picks up a letter, say the sound of the letter for her.
4. After playing, invite your baby to bring the box back to the shelf.

Additional Information:
I prepared this for Baby FECS to try today 6 July 2017 (1Y1M20D). Any toy that has base material to form a sensory box tends to be more interesting for kids to play with.

It has been 6 years ago since I first prepared a Montessori sensory box for our Little FECS. He is now 8 years old. Brings back lots of memories as I begin my Montessori journey with Baby FECS.

6 July 2017 (1Y1M20D): Baby FECS playing with Montessori Letter Pasta Sensory Box

Montessori Activity: The "Homemade" Montessori Moveable Alphabet

 

or fridge magnets

 

Lesson plan adapted from Montessori Mom

Age: From 4 years old (MontessoriMom recommends to use when the short letter sounds are mastered)

Objectives: 
1. To prepare the child for reading, writing and spelling in a fun way.

Materials: 
1. 1 plastic clear storage container with lid with 26 compartments for each letter, the blue letters are vowels and the red letters are consonants.
2. 1 set of letter fridge magnets
3. 1 paper
4. 1 pen
5. Leap-Frog letter magnets (optional)
6. 1 mat

Directions:
1. Open the box and show the letters to the child.

2. Ask your child various letters such as: "Can you show me "m"?

3. Write a 3-letter word such as "map" on a paper and tell your child, "We are going to make _______."

4. Ask your child, "What letters do you hear when I say "map"? The child will find the letter "m" and place it on the mat.

5. Ask: "What other sounds do you hear?" Usually, it will be "p". the child will find the letter "p" and place it on the mat.

6. Say: "There is a sound between the "m" and "p".

7. Ask the child to listen very carefully and pronounce the word "m-a-p" slowly and clearly for him.

8. Continue to make other words with your child until the exercise is mastered.

9. Be patient. Start by working on the letters that your child already knows. Work on the phonetic sounds of the letters. One day your child will be able to work on his own.

Additional Information:
Montessori materials as shown below can be very expensive:

Since we have the Leap frog fridge magnetic word builder, we decided to use it to make our own set of the Montessori-inspired Moveable Alphabet Box. As an addition, I labelled the compartment of each letter with a sticker. This helps Joshua to sort the letters as part of the clean up activity. One of the advantage of using the Leap Frog word builder for us is that it also helps me to revise my phonics :-)

You can make your own Montessori Moveable Alphabet by purchasing printables from www.montessoriprintshop.com

I found an excellent lesson plan from MontessoriMom! She has a fantastic list of 2 and 3 letter phonetic words a-e-i-o-u. Check out MontessoriMom for more free Montessori resources.

Another way of making your own Montessori moveable alphabet box is to use the Leap Frog Magnetic Word Builder:

Here are the main materials used in this post:

References:
http://www.montessorimom.com/moveable-alphabet/
http://mymontessorimoments.com/2012/08/16/john-roberts-writing-desk/
http://www.oneperfectdayblog.net/tag/montessori-moveable-alphabet/

Montessori Activity: Spelling Own Name with Pasta Sensory Tub & Letter Magnets

Age: 3 years old

Objective(s): To provide a fun way to teach spelling.

Materials:
1. 2 sets of letter magnets spelling the child's name, e.g. J, O, S, H, U, A for our child
2. Whiteboard
3. 4 packets of pasta
4. 1 transparent tub (I use transparent Smartbox 40 x 30 x 19cm)
5. Some cup, spoons, scope, etc.

Directions:
1. Spell your child's name, e.g. Joshua, on the whiteboard.

2. Hide another set of each letter magnet of J, O, S,H, U, A in a big tub full of dried pasta.

3. Tell your child to his name is hidden in the tub and invite him to have fun dishing it out.

4. While he is digging and finding, you can sing or say, "Where is letter a, where is letter a? Please come out, please come out" for example.

5. After he has found all the letters, ask him to say its name and pronounce its sound.

6. Ask him to place the respective letter that spell his name underneath the Joshua magnetic word already placed on the white board.

Additional Information:
You don't have to use pasta. You can also use rice, beans, etc. as base for the sensory tub. If you are not a fan of sensory tub, you can also put the letter magnets in an envelope each and hide them around the house for your child to find. Then ask your child to hunt for them, each letter making up his name.

Here is a great video by Momtessori on the sounds of letters.

Joshua isn't so keen in learning letters. So, I tried this idea today. Joshua enjoyed playing with the sensory tub. He was more interested in scooping the pasta out, than saying the sound of the letter after finding it. But at least he did did one round of repeating the sound of all the letters after me, and sub-consciously, I hope that he has learned something, while having fun. I have to be patient and allow him to play the way he likes, rather than the plan I have in mind. He wanted to use some of the letters to make a face instead, although I had intended the letters to form his name. This is how it is with children. It hardly ever go perfectly according to plan. But the good thing is that some learning has taken place.

Joshua chose the letter o for the eyes, and we made a face instead

I love to use transparent storage boxes for sensory tubs. I am using a Scandinavian brand, but you can find very good ones and the rest of the materials from Amazon:

Montessori Activity: Arranging ABCs/Alfabetsortering/字母分类[zì mu fēn lèi]

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To teach alphabet in a fun way.

Materials:
1. 1 container of small case letters 
2. 1 whyte board

Directions:
1. Arrange the letters in 2 rows on the whyte board in order from a - z.

2. Introduce the letters a - z by pointing to them one-by-one or by singing the alphabet song and pointing to them one-by-one on the whyte board.

3. Demonstrate to your child by looking for the 'a's for example in the container and placing them in a line below the first 'a' or asking your child to pick a letter and find the place where it belongs on the whyte board.

4. Encourage your child to try to with all the other letters.

5. As your child place the letter, encourage him to say the name of the letter and the sound of the letter. For example, I will say, "Joshua, what does dog say?" Joshua will say, "vov, vov". (Introducing the animal and its sounds makes it more concrete for Joshua the idea that every letter has a sound.) I will then ask, "Joshua, can you tell mommy what m says?" He will say, "mmmmmm".

Cost:
Alphabet magnets: 27.04 GBP (55 SGD) (I believe you can get these much cheaper in Singapore).

Additional Information:
This idea came to me when I was cleaning up J's playroom. J out-grow the liking for sorting things, thus, I was actually not sure if he would like this activity, as it involves sorting the letters and arranging them in a row according to the letter. However, J (2Y7M8D) tried this today and really enjoyed it. He asked for more, but time ran out.

At times, he would have a hard time locating the letter on the whyte board, and I helped him with it by guiding him and asking him questions. I would say, is it here... no... is it there... no... is it here... yes.

 

 

You can also buy from Amazon:

Montessori Activity: Scooping ABCs

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To teach the phonetics of letters.

Materials:

1. 2 identical medium bowls (I use the free plastic takeaway containers)
2. 4-5 fridge letter magnets into one bowl (not too many, keep it simple)
3. 1 deep spoon
4. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your toddler by scooping an letter from the bowl and while doing so, repeat the sound of that letter.

2. Repeat with the other letters.

3. Encourage and let your child try it.

4. Once your child master the first 4-5 letters, move on to the next set of letters.

Tips:

You can also sing the alphabet song as you do this activity.

Benefit(s):

1. A very good way to train your child’s fine motor skills.
2. A fun way to learn the alphabet.
3. Kill two birds with one stone, especially for the working mom, by combining Practical Life lesson with Language.

Total Cost:

Alphabet magnets : 27 DKK for (4.99 USD or 6.40 SGD)

Additional Information:

This is my own idea, and I can’t wait to test it on J! The results: J (24M9D) had difficulty scooping each of the letters from one bowl to another. So I simplify this activity by asking him to pick the right letter by hand instead. He has difficult picking the right letter. Thus, this will be my signal to put this activity away and let some time go by before re-introducing it.

Montessori Activity: Straining Letters/Sigte Alfabeter/滤字母 [lǜ zì mǔ]

Age: From 2 years old.

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To train hand-eye coordination skill
2. To teach language skills.

Materials:

1. 1 medium basin half-filled with water
2. 4 sets of small case alphabets each “a” to “d”
3. 4 identical containers
4. 1 mini strainer (I use the Chinese steamboat ladle with holes)
5. 1 small towel (to wipe dry the tray)
6. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child by sorting one set of the alphabets from a to e each of the small containers.

2. Demonstrate to your child by straining the alphabets from the basin with water into the container.

3. As you go along, recite the sound of the alphabet.

4. Pour the alphabets back into the basin.

5. Encourage your child to try to sort the other 3 sets of the alphabets “a” to “d” by placing each of letters after straining them from the basin into the correct container allocated for the particular letter.

6. Pour back all the alphabets into the bid bowl and repeat.

Cost:

Alphabet magnets: 27.04 GBP (55 SGD) (I believe you can get these much cheaper in Singapore).

Additional Information:

This is part of my lesson plan for next Saturday "Fun with English Class for Toddlers". I can't wait to try it out on J and A!!!

Montessori Activity: Sorting Alphabets/Alfabetsortering/字母分类[zì mu fēn lèi]

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To teach alphabets.

Materials:
1. 1 big bowl of 4 sets of small case alphabets a to e
2. 4 identical containers
3. 1 tray

* It is important that the colour of the 4 small containers are the same, so as not to confuse the child that it is alphabet sorting and not colour sorting.

Directions:
1. Demonstrate to your child by sorting one set of the alphabets from a to e each of the small bowls first.

2. As you go along, recite the sound of the alphabet.

3. Encourage your child to try to sort the other 3 sets of the alphabets a-e by putting each of letters into the correct container allocated for the particular letter.

4. Pour back all the alphabets into the bid bowl and repeat.

Cost: Alphabet magnets: 27.04 GBP (55 SGD) (I believe you can get these much cheaper in Singapore).