Montessori Activity: Screwing & Unscrewing Jars with Lid

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-10 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To sharpen the child’s sensitivity to sound.
2. To teach the concept of empty and full by shaking the jars respectively through sound.
3. To train fine motor skill by screwing and unscrewing the lids.

Materials:

1. 2 jam or baby food jars with lids, one filled with some dried pasta, beans or plastic pegs
2. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Unscrew the lids and screw it back.

2. Shake the jar with things, bring your hand to your ears and ask your child to listen.

3. Shake the empty jar, bring your hand to your ear and ask your child to listen.

4. Tell him the full jar makes a sound, and the empty jar does not make any sound.

5. Encourage your child to try by shaking both containers and listening to them.

6. Allow your child to play with it himself, unscrewing the lids, pouring the content into the other jar, screwing it and shaking it.

Additional Information:

I still give J iron and vitamin D drops in the morning sometimes (but sometimes vitamin pills). Yesterday, J (2Y3M3D) wanted to unscrew the cap of the bottles himself. He did it all on his own, unscrewed the bottle, dripped the drops into his spoonful of oatmeal (I was holding the spoon), and screwed back the caps tightly. So I realized that he could now screw and unscrew lids.

Taking the cue, I quickly went to set up this game for him to let him practice more screwing and unscrewing lids. He could screw it back, but was not so good in unscrewing it. I think the size of the jars posed a little challenge, compared to the bottles. but it was good practice still.