Spring is a time for refreshing pretty much everything in life! How often do you switch up your Montessori shelves? By season? By theme? Here are lots of spring shelf ideas for your Montessori learnign space!
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!
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.
Seed Mosaic
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!
With every new month comes new inspiration. Here are a few easy Montessori spring shelf ideas. I like to rotate work out of my boys' Montessori room fairly often.
Cone Cutting Work
The idea for this tray actually came from my 3.5 year old. We had a few nature items around his play area. I watched him walk over to his cabinet to retrieve his scissors. Then he began clipping the cone intently. What an amazing variation for cutting works! I saw the shell and thought it'd be the perfect vessel to catch the scraps. Aims include fine motor skills. Indirect aims include writing.
Woodchip Clothespin Transfer
I saw this wood chips on a recent trip to Lakeshore Learning and had to go for them. Quite simply placed in a green mini pail, the approach requires using the clothespin to transfer the chips to the Tivolo ice cube tray. Aims include fine motor skills. Indirect aims include pre-math with counting and sorting opportunities.
Botany & Zoology
So thrilled to receive our Botany and Zoology puzzles. I purchased these Montessori Zoology Puzzles
from Amazon. So they are not from an “authentic” Montessori company but I am really impressed with them.
My sons enjoy them. My 2 year old immediately took to them. Watching my 3.5 year old give his younger brother a lesson on the puzzles was heartwarming. He even including taking out, rolling and putting away the work mats. Sigh.
Our observation of the Life Cycle of a Frog continues this week. It has been about two weeks since we cultivated our little home for the eggs, then tadpoles and now almost polliwogs. The boys are thrilled with the observation. It is exciting for them (and for me too). Other materials we used in learning about the life cycle of frogs include Insect Lore's Frog Life Cycle Replicas
, this really cool Tadpole/Frog Reversable Puppet
and several books including National Geographic Readers: Frogs!
.
Mini Bean Bag Gross Motor Activities
I bought Mini Bean Bags
. I am excited for this material because it is so versatile. We worked on gross motor and eye hand coordination by tossing into a vase. I also drew shapes on the floor with painter's tape and we took turns tossing the bags into various shapes. This learning is a lot of fun and involves movement. So, I love it.
“To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.”
Thanks for visiting today.
Marnie
by Wendy Pfeffer
by Gail Gibbons
for your eggs or tadpoles
