Carrots Are Orange

Montessori Parenting & Learning

5 Fun Montessori Practical Life Fall Shelf

By Filed Under: Montessori, Shelf Work Tagged With: , This post may contain affiliate links.

If you are anything like me, refreshing shelf work is huge whether you are a homeschooler or in a classroom. Shelf work should get a refresher once a month at least to keep the kids interested and to honor “following the child”. In this case, I have a Montessori Practical Life fall shelf theme. I hope you enjoy these Montessori Practical Life Fall Shelf Ideas.

RAINBOW_LETTERS_FALL_1024x1024

Check out my fall themed Rainbow letters!

Practical Life Cutting Strips

“All our handling of the child will bear fruit, not only at the moment, but in the adult they are destined to become.” ~ Maria Montessori

Math Paperclip Tray

Paperclip Tray

This tray is great because you can place it on the Math Shelf! Pretty simple. A small bowl or paperclips, a piece of chalk, a die, and a chalkboard. Have the child roll the die for the numerals to add (or subtract). If the child rolls a “3”, the child then clips 3 paperclips together, and so on. Add the paperclips together to get the sum. This tray works fine motor skills and introduces math concepts in a concrete way.

Practical Life Tray Ideas

Acorn Transfer Tray

I found plastic Christmas ornaments and decided to make a work from them! This tray has the ornament placed on a geometric solid base, a small bowl of acorn “gems”, and small tongs. You can use tweezers, too. Simply tweeze an acorn and drop it into the ornament!

Montessori Practical Life Math Tray

Daisy Counters Tray

This tray is versatile, too. Like the Paperclip Tray above, this tray works the fine motor skills of “clicking” the counter while introducing numeration with counting. Honestly this idea came about when we were cutting the dead flowers from our yard. We started to count the daisies and group them into 2s, 5s, and 10s. Voila! We have a work!

Montessori Leaf Counters

I also introduced this tray with “leaf gems” from Michaels. Simple, small, and festive!

Thank you for taking the time to read this Montessori Practical Life fall shelf post. Please subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest and greatest. Be sure to stop by our awesome Carrots Are Orange Facebook community for more inspiration!  Lastly, please let me know what is on your shelf!

Marnie

PS. I have some super fun Halloween themed cutting strips in my shop! Check them out!

Make a Melted Pony Bead Sun Catcher

By Filed Under: Activities, Elementary, Kindergarten, Preschool, Seasons, STEAM Tagged With: This post may contain affiliate links.

Melted Pony Beads Feature

I love the colors of fall. The turning leaves, the harvest, the light. I love all of it. This post includes a Make a Melted Pony Bead Sun Catcher activity, perfect to brighten your home with a little fall decor.

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Wilton Mold

Melted Pony Beads Sun Catcher

Melted Pony Bead Activity

Materials

  • Transparent and Opaque fall colored Pony Beads
  • Silicone Mini Leaf and Pumpkin Mold
  • Heat Source like an outdoor oven or grill works best to mitigate the toxins from melting plastic. We used our inside oven, cranked the fan, and opened windows and doors. The smell was a bit much so definitely over do it with the ventilation.

how to make a melted pony bead sun catcher

Approach

  • Decorate your pumpkins and leaves however you wish in the mold
  • Carefully place onto baking sheet
  • Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes
  • Allow time to cool
  • Display by mounting on a window, or drilling a hole into the sun catcher and threading string through for a hanging display

A fun and simple way to bring light and creativity to your child's day and into your home! Be sure to check out The Artful Parent's Melted Pony Bead Sun Catcher posts. They are wonderful and are sure to inspire you!

Melted Pony Bead Sun Catcher Collage

 

 

I hope we inspired you today!
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Pumpkin Sewing Activity for Preschoolers

By Filed Under: Kindergarten, Montessori, Preschool, Seasons Tagged With: , This post may contain affiliate links.

Sewing Pumpkin Activity for Kids

Sewing a wonderful early learning activity for children. We recently used felt, yarn, and cotton balls to create a pumpkin. The great part about this activity is that you can adjust it to the age of the child with the type of needle, the type of thread, and how much the child owns the process. Here is how we did our Fall Montessori Activities – Pumpkin Activity for Preschoolers.

Fall Montessori Pumpkin Sewing Activity for Preschoolers

Pumpkin Craft for Kids

Materials

Felt Stuffed Pumpkin Activity

Montessori Approach

  • Trace a pumpkin shape onto the orange felt, card stock, or construction paper
  • You or the child cut out the pumpkin shape
  • If using a blunt large needle, you won't be able to poke through the felt. I punched holes into the felt with a paper hole punch. So, for my 3.5 year old, the exercise became more of a lacing activity. If you have an older child, you can use a standard needle and thread. You can also play with materials, using thinner felt pieces or cloth.
  • Demonstrate how to proceed by “sewing” with the yarn or string the two pumpkins together. We went around the pumpkin twice.
  • Leave a hole at the “stem” to stuff with cotton or paper
  • Color the stem or glue a brown/green piece of felt, paper, or fabric to create the look of the stem
  • Gently stuff the pumpkin
  • You can either glue the pumpkin shut at the stem, “sew”, or staple it closed

Other Fun Pumpkin Activities

  • Parts of the pumpkin
  • Explore the guts of a pumpkin
  • Bake pumpkin seeds
  • Pumpkin seed sensory bag
  • Pumpkin Play dough and Slime

I hope we inspired you today!

Marnie

Montessori Math and Fine Motor Activity with Leaves

By Filed Under: Kids and Money, Kindergarten, Montessori, Preschool, Seasons Tagged With: , This post may contain affiliate links.

I love fall! I am so inspired to create materials with the traditional icons and especially the colors of fall. I like to think my sons enjoy the process as much as I do. This post includes a simple fall themed Montessori math and fine motor activity with leaves. Great for one to one correspondence work, numeration, and you can even work place value by assigning different place values to different colors. In other words, a “red” leaf is a ten and an “orange” leaf is a hundred. You can get as creative or advanced as you and your children need to be with this activity. Enjoy!

Preschool Activity with Leaves

Montessori Math and Fine Motor Activity with Leaves

Leaf Math Activity

Fine Motor Activity Materials

  • Leaf Paper Hole Punch
  • Card Stock or Construction Paper in various fall colors (e.g. red, orange, brown, yellow)
  • Glue Stick
  • Marker
  • Paper hole punch with string or stapler to create a booklet

Fine Motor Activity with Leaves

Math Activity Approach

  • Cut squares of card stock or construction paper in all the same color for your number cards
  • You or the child write the numbers on the card (1 to 5 for younger child, 1 -10, teens, or the name “one”, for example, for an older child)
  • Get out the glue stick(s) and leaf paper hole punch
  • Demonstrate how to use the leaf paper hole punch to the child
  • Introduce the activity to the child, including being able to make a booklet to take home or to display

This activity is great for pre-math and fine motor skills. Plus it is pretty and festive. The children will love using the hole punch! The work is perfect for the shelf in your classroom or your kitchen table at home. Enjoy!

I hope we inspired you today!
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Montessori Apple Unit – Montessori Fall Theme

By Filed Under: Activities, Kindergarten, Montessori, Preschool, Seasons Tagged With: , , , This post may contain affiliate links.

This post includes loads of ideas for a Montessori inspired apple unit!

Preschool Apple Unit

Montessori Fall Activities – Apples

Practical Life

apple slicing

Sensorial

applecrafts

Montessori Language

Montessori Math

Montessori Art

Montessori History

  • Time it takes for an apple tree to grow and to harvest apples using a piece of string

Montessori Geography

  • Where do Apples grow? Why? Discuss states like Washington. Mark a map with the apple grown in that state.

Montessori Zoology

  • Study of animals known to enjoy apples such as worms, caterpillars, and horses
  • Investigate: An apple a day keeps the doctor away?

Montessori Botany

Montessori Science

Resources for Apple Unit

 

8 Easy & Inexpensive Leaf Activities for Kids

By Filed Under: Activities, Infant & Toddler, Kids and Money, Kindergarten, Preschool, Seasons Tagged With: This post may contain affiliate links.

As I was thinking about Fall Activities for my 3 and 1.5-year-old, I discovered so many Easy, Inexpensive & Creative Leaf Activities on Pinterest, I decided I had to share my top 8 Easy, Inexpensive & Creative Leaf Activities. Photos are sourced from respective blogs with a link back to the post. Please click through to their sites for more details! Also, check out my Fall Rainbow Letters and my FREE Fall Activities Pack!

leaf activities

8 Easy, Inexpensive & Creative Leaf Activities for Your Home & Classroom


Living Montessori Now has a great round up of activities including this one by To The Lesson! From practical life to math to science, you will find many Montessori inspired activities for your home and classroom.

Love the creativity in this leave activity from Full Circle. The greatest part is how the activity combines art and the senses. Children crumple dry leaves and create their own masterpiece! Process art at its best!

My Kids Make has two activities that I adore a Leaf Rubbing and a Leaf Connect the Dot. Leaf rubbing is easy to do and inexpensive. Take the kids out to gather leaves, pack paper and crayons, and find a spot to rub leaves! A wonderful fall outdoor activity for children

These leaf prints from Kleas are gorgeous and so easy! Kids love this art activity. Go outside and gather leaves. Paint one side of the leave and make a gorgeous print.

outdoor leaf activities

One of my favorite blogs, Happy Hooligans, incorporates learning and movement into their fall activity.  How beautiful is this spiral of leaves?

I love the simplicity and honesty in working with younger children in this fall activity post by Gigi's Joy. Another leaf printing idea but the post is worth the read!

fun leaf activitiesThis “foliage friends” from Family Fun @ Disney are too adorable not to include in this list. Kids can get so creative with this activity. I love watching their imaginations run wild!

This Leaf Sun Catcher from Adventures in Reading With Kids is simple and beautiful. I love the use of branches for the frame. Grab some contact paper and create away!

If you are looking for more fall goodness, check out these fun FALL themed Rainbow Letters!

I hope we inspired you today!
Marnie