Seasons

Quick & Easy July 4th Activities for Kids

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities Tagged With: Easy & Inexpensive, Holidays, Infant & Toddler, July 4th, Kindergarten, Preschool, Seasons This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I had some much fun putting this post together. Easy July 4th activities for you and your kids to enjoy! Enjoy these Easy July 4th Activities for Kids!

Easy July 4th Activities for Kids

DIY Star Pattern Cards

I love working the pre-reading and pre-math mind. Kids as young as 2 and 3 (and EVEN younger) years old can begin to connect and solidify those neuron pathways enabling a ripeness for learning more complex concepts later in development. This festively themed 4th of July activity is perfect for preschoolers and perfect for making learning fun.

Materials Needed

Red, White, or Blue Cardstock
Star Stickers
Scissors
Laminator (optional)

Approach

Cut the cardstock into strips
Place stickers on card stock strip
Laminate
Create matching labels with same stickers
Cut out the matching labels
Demonstrate to the child how to match star to star
Alternatively you can prepare cards that don't complete a pattern and have the child choose the label or labels that come next in the pattern. There are many variations to pattern and matching cards.

Why are matching & pattern cards so beneficial?

Pattern cards teach young children logic when it comes to math and prepares a child for reading and writing. Typically pattern cards move left to right just as a child's hands and eyes would move when reading and writing later in his development.

4th of July Art Activities for Kids

How the heck do we introduce topics like America's birthday and the founding of our nation to young children? My quick answer is to find ways to hook them into the stories. Art activities work best with most young children in achieving this hook!

My sons are almost 4 and almost 2.5 years old. They understand that certain symbols, like a flag and statues, represent countries.

The Statue of Liberty particularly resonates with them because their dad travels to New York City several times a year. So I wanted to complete a few Statue of Liberty related art activities.

Art Activities for Kids

Statue of Liberty Resist Art

Materials Needed:

Poster board
Statue of Liberty print out
Scissors
Blue Paint
Brush
Star hole punch (optional)

Process

Find and print out a Statue of Liberty FREE printable online
Cut it out (older kids can cut the statue out on their own)
Tape it onto a piece of poster board.
Give your child the opportunity to paint.
I asked my son what color paint he wanted for this project. He chose blue (obviously).
Then we made stars with a paper hole punch. We ended up filling most of the poster board with stars.

I love the way it looks on our window with the light shining through the stars.

Statue of Liberty Art Activity

Materials Needed

Poster board
Statue of Liberty print out
X-acto knife
Red and blue dobbers

Process

Find and print out a Statue of Liberty FREE printable online, use your x-acto knife to cut out the Statue of Liberty only, then tape the template onto the poster board.

I used dobbers so that my 2.5 years old could feel a part of this project. You could use paint, crayons, markers, etc, whatever will work with your child. Once your child is done, pull the template off the poster board to see the Statue of Liberty and display. I love how abstract this artwork appears upon completion.

More 4th of July Activities for Kids

American Flag Fingerprint Activity
Marbled Art American Flag
Patriot Hand Print from B-Inspired Mama
Hand Print and Foot Print Flag from Serendipity
American Flag activity from True Blue Aggie Fans
Patriotic Rock Painting with Amazing Moms
Patriotic Ping Pong Pattern Match Activity by PediaStaff
Stringing Stars Activity from Toddler Approved
Fireworks by I Heart Lovely Things
Q-Tip Fireworks from Busy Bee Kids Crafts

Have fun and thank you for visiting today. If you liked what you read and learned, please share this post with your friends!

Marnie

Montessori Monthly Themes: Amazing, Fun, & Easy to Do

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities, Montessori in the Home Tagged With: Fall, Holidays, Monthly Themes, Seasons, Spring, Summer, Winter This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This page includes Montessori monthly themes for preschoolers including Montessori Activities by Season and Montessori Activities by Holiday. I hope this content helps you create amazing Montessori Monthly Lesson Plans! My goal is to add to this monthly content so that you have dozens of Montessori theme ideas for each month of the year!

Montessori Month by Month Curriculum

The child's development follows a path of successive stages of independence, and our knowledge of this must guide us in our behaviour towards him. We have to help the child to act, will and think for himself. This is the art of serving the spirit, an art which can be practised to perfection only when working among children. – Dr. Maria Montessori

Montessori Winter Activities

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. ~John Burroughs, “Winter Sunshine”

Montessori New Years Activities

Montessori Martin Luther King Jr. Activities

Montessori Valentine's Day Activities

Montessori St. Patrick's Day Activities

Montessori Earth Day Activities

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each. – Henry David Thoreau

Montessori Spring Themed Activities

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own. – Charles Dickens

Montessori Mother's Day Themed Activities

Montessori Memorial Day Themed Activities

Montessori Father's Day Themed Activities

Montessori Summer Themed Activities

Montessori July 4th Themed Activities

Montessori Fall Themed Activities

Unique Montessori Spring Shelf Ideas

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori Lessons Tagged With: Seasons, Shelf Work, Spring This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Spring is a time for refreshing pretty much everything in life! How often do you switch up your Montessori shelves? By season? By theme?

I am always curious and it always amazes me how suddenly children – with a little freshening up of the shelves – re-engage in the works.

Below are five Montessori Spring Shelf ideas to get you inspired in creating your spring shelves in your Montessori environment!

{Check out my Spring Activities Pack!}

Montessori Spring Shelf Ideas

Spring Scene

I purchased four small pieces of vintage artwork a few years ago. Each picture represents a season cast upon the same house and yard. Place a spring scene on a tray, give the children a prompt to write or to draw about the scene. This prompt leaves space for loads of creativity and imagination suited to the individual child.

Wildflower Research

We love this book as you can see by the worn edges! We leave it out for use at any moment. I challenge my boys to identify the wildflowers in our area. Leave this book on your spring shelves. Have the child choose one of the many flowers within these pages. From that point, invite the child to research the wildflower, trace, and draw the flower.

Trace a Robin

We love our robins here in the Pacific Northwest. Robin are survivors that adapt over the winter. I am always amazed by the survivors. As spring descends upon us, the robin come out in full force hunting for worms and other goodies to eat. I purchased several sets of these “Bit of Intelligence” cards covering a variety of topics. The back of the cards have all sorts of useful facts about the image. The cards are beautifully illustrated with great detail. The cards make for a perfect tracing work. Invite the child to trace (or to draw on her own) and color in the robin.

Spring Tweezing

Simple is best. Choose the colors of spring and create a sorting work to place on your spring shelves. These discs are wooden and a gorgeous color. Younger children can simply do a hand sort while the older children will be interested in tweezing the small discs.

Spring Pouring

An easy to put together intriguing pouring work for young children. The seeds not only make for interesting colors, textures, and shapes, they also make for a lovely sound when poured back and forth left to right in and out of the small jars.

One of our favorite art activities is a seed mosaic! We did one for Valentine's Day a few years ago. Parts of the Seed is also a fun activity for kids. If you need a wonderful book list, check out this list of children's books about seeds!

I hope you enjoyed these ideas!

Marnie

Fun, Beautiful Spring Flower Fractions Math Activity

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities Tagged With: Math, Seasons, Spring This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Why not put some fun into fractions? As I have expounded on in the past, math can start early in life and math doesn't have to be boring. You can take math learning outside and even give the math lesson a cool Star Wars theme.

Gasp!

Yes, hold onto your seats, folks. It is possible for kids to love math. Yup, I said it. Make the math activity concrete, beautiful, and fun. That's my top secret. Maria Montessori believes kids begin learning math concepts from extremely early on, like in then womb. True story.

“The child in the postnatal (or psychological) period of his embryonic life, absorbs from the world about him the distinctive patterns to which the social life of his group conforms….He absorbs in short, the mathematical part…..the little child’s need for order is one of the most powerful incentives to dominate his early life.” Dr. Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

Montessori Math Philosophy

Here are a few things Maria Montessori had to say about Math:

Our brains are naturally drawn to precision, to organize, to compare, to create order out of disorder, to classify and to quantify patterns and relationships.
Human beings are born with a propensity to naturally be driven to calculate, to reason and to create within their environments.
Guidance and a well-prepared environment are needed, or the capacity to perform such thinking is eventually lost.
A child’s environment & life experiences must lend to the innate mathematical mind.
Exposing a child to these concepts early in his life is vital to the later development of more complex math concepts.

Spring Fractions Math Activity

In the spirit of making math fun and attractive to kids, I created this Spring Fractions activity as part of my Spring Activities Bundle. Children color in the petals based on the fraction given on the page next to the flower.

“The focus is not on the answer – it’s on how your child gets the answer. This is contrary to the usual way we operate in the adult world, where results are the primary goal to be reached.” ~ Michael Duffy, Math Works

Download Spring Fractions for Free

Montessori Math Materials You Might Enjoy

Teach Your 3 to 7-Year-Old Math by John Bowman
Montessori Short Bead Chain
Montessori Math Activities from Montessori Services
Fraction Circles
Hundred Board
Card Counters

Enjoy!
Marnie

Fresh New Ideas for Winter Montessori Shelves

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori in the Classroom Tagged With: Christmas, Holidays, Practical Life, Seasons, Shelf Work, Winter This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you want to know what I truly love about Montessori Practical Life? I will tell you a secret…come a little closer…most trays can be made simply using items you have lying around the home. Variations seem endless and easily adaptable to months, seasons, interests, and holidays. Check out these fresh new ideas for your Winter Montessori shelves.

Montessori Winter Trays

Large Bead Stringing is popular and ridiculously effectively early childhood Montessori Practical Life Work. Easy to cater to the various festive seasons throughout the year, this tray includes green and red large beads with lace for stringing.

This pearl tweezer activity is a perfect winter fine motor activity for kids. Children who have mastered dry pouring, wet pouring, spooning, and tonging are ripe for this work. Plus the sound of the pearl dropping into the small dish is wonderful for young ears.

You can't go wrong with adding this snowflake paper punch to your shelves. We love paper hole punching work. It works fine motor skills and is a great variation on pin poking. Simply include a plain piece of paper and a bowl or bag for collecting the snowflakes to use in an art project or sensory tub. Another idea is to include punch cards for numeration, letters, or sensorial pattern making.

This adorable tray is a simple tweezing activity with a sweet twist. A great precursor to spring works and discussions around bird habitats and winter behavior. I picked this nest and eggs up at Michaels Crafts. Simply set up with tweezers, tongs, or even as a hand transfer.

Take green and red mini jingle bells in a small dish, add tweezers or tongs, and two obvious sorting areas. Invite the child to the work. The kids will adore the mini bells and the sounds of the holiday.

It is difficult to see in this image above but there is a bowl of mini silver jingle bells and a plastic ornament. My 1.5 year old can't get enough of taking one bell and popping it into the ornament. For older children, add tweezers to really work fine motor skills.

I love these mini spools. Not only are they green and red, perfect for the holidays, but they are so versatile. In this tray, we use a tweezer to sort the red and green spools into their respective “napkin rings”. I have also used these spools for small bead stringing.

We adore this tray! There is the isolation of color with white, plus the sorting between soft cotton balls and hard small beads. Adding tweezers or tongs is a nice final touch on the tray but not necessary especially with younger children!

So, what do you think about my secret? Do you like these fresh ideas? I hope so. I will be in touch soon!

Marnie

Montessori February Shelves

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori Tagged With: Holidays, Seasons, Shelf Work, Valentine's Day This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Changing up your Montessori shelves can be fun or overwhelming. Hopefully, I will help you make it fun by providing you with a few ideas I've brainstormed over the past few weeks. This post includes ideas for a Montessori February Theme. Enjoy!

“One of the reasons why children feel a sense of calm and repose (spiritually) in the Montessori school is because it is an environment where everything has its proper place and must keep to it.” ~ E.M. Standing

Montessori February Shelves

Practical Life – February Shelves

Red and White Pom PomTransfer
Heart Gem Transfer
Felt Heart Sewing like this Pumpkin Sewing Activity
Burlap Heart Sewing
Heart Pin Poke
Flag Pin Poke
Transfer Coins
Heart Paper Hole Punching activity where you have cards with numbers or pictures of objects in a certain quantity and the child punches that many hearts. You can use the hearts for an art project (three areas in one!)
Red Water Pouring Work
Red Water Beads in sensory tub or bottle
Button Snake
Pipe Cleaner Beading
Felt Rose Transfer
Large Red & Pink Bead Stringing
Red Water Transfer with a Sponge

Science – February Shelves

Parts of the Heart Nomenclature Cards
Parts of the Rose
Cross Section Heart Model
Study the groundhog and his shadow
Play with the Science of Shadows

Geography – February Shelves

US Landmark match
Study of Washington D.C.

Math – February Shelves

Wooden Heart Counters
One to one correspondence cards
Match coins to presidents on them

(Image Source: Instructables.com)

Engineering – February Shelves

Cupid bow and arrow using simple materials such as crafts sticks and blocks like this super cool bow and arrow from Instructables.com

Art – February Shelves

Heart Collage using the heart cut out from Practical Life work (above)
“Love” Mixed Media Collage
Heart Bean Mosaic
Create a Groundhog

Sensorial – February Shelves

Heart sticker or stamp pattern cards
Size sequencing hearts like this beautiful sizing hearts set from Etsy
Red and pink color grading paint samples or tonal painting strips (free from the hardware store!)
DIY Wooden Heart Memory Game – I used the wooden hearts I purchased from Amazon for a variation on cards and counters. Then I thought about what my boys love right now. They love Star Wars. So, I found mini stickers and applied pairs to the wooden hearts. The boys had a lot of fun with it.

Language – February Shelves

Valentine Key Language 3 Part Cards
February Themed Rainbow Letters
Cupid & Arrow Match – Help the cupid hit his target worksheet with pink, blue, and green level reading (you can apply this idea to other learning areas, too, such as math).
“Fill my Heart” Word Families is simple. You have a heart shaped bucket, envelope, dish, or 2D heart for the child to “fill”. For example, if your looking for words in the “at” family, the child would find the appropriate images and glue (or fill) the heart with those images.

These ideas are just a start. I will update as I plan out for President's Day. In the meantime check out this President Day Activities post for ideas! Oh, and I cannot forget about Groundhog's Day!

Thanks for stopping by…

Marnie