Infant & Toddler

Montessori Activity Plan for Toddlers & Preschoolers – Discovery Theme

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Montessori, Montessori in the Home Tagged With: Infant & Toddler, Work Plans This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

One of the biggest requests from my readers is to create a week by week Montessori activity plan for the home. This post is the start of offering those plans. Each week there will be a theme. The first week's theme is Discovery.

Montessori Work Plan – Week 1 – Discovery

MONDAY

Discover a sitting spot outdoors. This spot will be the child's spot for a lifetime! Encourage the child to “decorate” his sitting spot with his own natural art.

This spot will be for the child to reflect. Reflecting for kids this age means drawing and often talking. Feel free to transcribe their stories and ideas about their sitting spot.

If finding a spot outdoors is not ideal, allow the child to create a safe & peaceful place somewhere inside. This could be under a stairwell, under her bed, in a closet, or a nook in a play area.

Resources & Materials for this Activity

Journal
Pencils
Colored Pencils
Markers
String
Beads

TUESDAY

Discover a natural object in your sitting spot area. Observe, study it, and make notes of the textures, shapes, smells, and anything else that comes to your mind.

Take out your journal and sketch the object, write about it, and collect it within your journal's pages.

WEDNESDAY

Discover what life would be like if you were as small as an insect exploring, climbing, and living within the blades of grass and grains of sand. This activity is full of discovery.

Grab a yard long piece of ribbon or yarn, find an interesting place to lay it out, and get down as close as you can to the world beneath the yarn!

Resources & Materials for this Activity

Read Thumbelina and go on a Thumbelina Walk.

THURSDAY

Discover the world through your ears! Taking in the world through our senses is how we learn about the environment and how we develop our brains!

Resources & Materials for this Activity

Read one of my all-time favorite books called The Listening Walk and then go on your own Listening Walk.

FRIDAY

Discover seeds. Seeds are seriously cool and kids love to explore and to examine seeds' unique qualities. Dissecting various vegetables and fruit to reveal & observe in detail the seeds.

Resources & Materials for this Activity

Read these books about seeds
Study the parts of the seed
Check out this list of 12 Unique & Creative Activities with Seeds

6 Simple & Effective Fine Motor Skills Activities with Water

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities Tagged With: Fine Motor Skills, Infant & Toddler, Sensory This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Water play is a wonderful way for children across a wide range of ages to develop strong fine motor skills. Fine motor activities encourage skill development and help children and disabled adults develop abilities such as pinching, grasping, hand-eye coordination, and finger isolation. This post includes 6 simple activities with water that promote fine motor skills development.

By the way, I have a list of super fun water balloon activities that kids LOVE!!!

Most school programs offer fine motor skills development, but there are also a wealth of simple steps parents and caregivers can take at home to help enhance these skills. Here are five fun, developmentally appropriate ideas to encourage these skills using basic household supplies and water.

6 Simple Fine Motor Skills Activities with Water

Water Basting

One way to integrate fine motor work into water play is by adding tools like a baster. Kids love to watch the water flow up then squeeze it out.

>> Read about the Montessori Basting lesson.

Sponge Transfer

What is it about sponges? Dry. Hard. Wet. Soft. Kids love to squeeze and transfer water with sponges. My kids also love to paint with sponges.

>> Read about the Montessori Sponging lesson.

Pouring Water Transfer

Transferring H2O from one container to another helps learners develop hand-eye coordination and overall motor control. All you need for these activities are bottles or jugs of different sizes. Fill one of the jugs with H2O, and then show your little one how to pour its contents into another container. Kids can keep pouring liquid from one container to another until they're bored.

It's Raining!

Probably the easiest activity to put into your back pocket of activities with water! For this activity, you'll need a shallow baking dish filled with everyday items such as dry sponges, pieces of paper, scraps of cloth and waterproof toys. You'll also need a plastic cup with about a dozen small holes poked in the bottom. Have your child hold the cup over the tray, then pour H2O in and watch as the rain begins to fall. Encourage your child to move the rain over all the objects. Once the cup is empty, have your little one touch the various objects and describe how they feel when wet.

Picking Up All the Caps

Gather assorted caps from drink containers, several popsicle sticks and a wash basin for this fun activity. First, fill the basin with H2O. Then, place drink caps upside down on the surface of the liquid so that they float. Have your child hold a popsicle stick in each hand, and show them how to pick up individual caps using the sticks. Repeat the activity until all of the caps have been removed from the wash basin.

Outside Painting with H2O

This water activity is one of the easiest to pull off when you want to have some impromptu, learning-driven fun outside. All you need is a paintbrush and a cup of H2O. Take your little ones outside on a sunny day and let them have fun painting the sidewalk, house and anything else they desire. This activity helps to develop the pincer grip while teaching about evaporation and the water cycle too.

I love this painting with rain activity by Picklebums.

Funky Fishing Fun

For this water activity, you'll need a wash basin filled with H2O, a few ping-pong balls, and an aquarium fish net. Simply toss the ping-pong balls into the liquid. Then demonstrate to your child how to scoop them up using the net. This super fun kids' activity can be repeated over and over (kids love repetition!) until your child is tired of scooping! (Erh…bedtime?)

Remember that building fine motor skills doesn't have to be complicated. In addition to these easy activities with water, you'll come across dozens more going about your regular day. Let inspiration be your guide as you teach your little one all about interacting with the world through H2O.

Marnie

The Best & Easiest Montessori Activities for 2 Year Olds

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities Tagged With: 2 Year Olds, Infant & Toddler This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

If you're a parent who has embraced the Montessori Method to educate your children, then you already know how important it is to provide a learning environment that encourages the healthy development of your child in every area of life. Each activity should work to promote the cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth of the child. This post includes the best Montessori activities for 2-year-olds.

Developmental Milestones of a 2 Year Old

There is so much going on in a child's brain at 2 years old. She is soaking (literally) up the world around her like a sponge and is gaining dozens of new vocabulary every day. Multi-sensory activities are the way to go working to solidify and strengthen all those neuron pathways.

The CDC gives this list of developmental milestones of a 2 year old. This list is not exhaustive and doesn't apply to every single child. In other words, every child's developmental path will differ from the next child's development. With that said, if you are concerned at all, talk to your pediatrician. There are lots of options to intervene if there are obstacles facing your child.

Social and Emotional

Copies others, especially adults and older children
Gets excited when with other children
Shows more and more independence
Shows defiant behavior (doing what he has been told not to)
Plays mainly beside other children, but is beginning to include other children, such as in chase games

Language/Communication

Points to things or pictures when they are named
Knows names of familiar people and body parts
Says sentences with 2 to 4 words
Follows simple instructions
Repeats words overheard in conversation
Points to things in a book

Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)

Finds things even when hidden under two or three covers
Begins to sort shapes and colors
Completes sentences and rhymes in familiar books
Plays simple make-believe games
Builds towers of 4 or more blocks
Might use one hand more than the other
Follows two-step instructions such as “Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet.”
Names items in a picture book such as a cat, bird, or dog

Movement/Physical Development

Stands on tiptoe
Kicks a ball
Begins to run
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Climbs onto and down from furniture without help
Walks up and down stairs holding on
Throws ball overhand
Makes or copies straight lines and circles

Activities for 2-Year-Olds

As many of you know, toddlers learn best through experiences that utilize all of their senses. Below are a few examples of activities inspired by the Montessori Method that you may choose for your own 2-year-old child or other children of this age who you are teaching.

One to One Matching Activities

These types of games are very good at helping toddlers create a good sense of order. Place animal flashcards on the floor, and provide the child with a basket of figurines that represent each animal depicted on the cards. Allow the child to place each figurine onto the appropriate card. Another idea is to introduce a basket of socks in various colors and designs, and have the child match the socks appropriately. You can also introduce math one to one correspondence with 2-year-olds. Simply use card counters and have the child match objects based on the number on the card. You can match object to object, object to image, and so on. There are so many variations.

Pouring and Chopping

2-year-old children are ripe for developing their fine motor skills. 2 year old are drawn to fine motor challenges and it is fun! Start by placing a plastic cloth on the table for easy cleanup. Offer the child a light-weight pitcher of water and a sturdy cup, and the child can practice pouring water into the cup without spilling. You may also provide a plastic knife and a banana or other soft foods for practice at cutting slices. Early practical life activities work well for 2-year-olds.

Early Literacy

Print out coloring pages of the alphabet, and your child will be on the path to reading. Identify the letter, talk about words that begin with that letter, and allow the child to color the letter. If coloring is not a good option, then the letter may also be filled in with play-dough or watercolors. Always emphasize the sound, not the name of the letter. Introduce a salt or sand tray, too, if you feel the child is ready for the work. It is an ideal Montessori work for a toddler classroom.

Sensory Input

Activities that address the senses simultaneously are extremely important for toddlers. For example, take aim at your child's sense of touch with a cloth bag and five different items. This activity is called a Mystery Bag. You may pick objects such as toys, spoons, books, and blocks. Show each item to the child before placing them in the bag. With eyes closed, the child may reach into the bag to touch and identify each object.

I hope you found these ideas helpful.

Marnie

5 Easy Montessori Activities for a Curious One Year Old

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities Tagged With: 1 Year Olds, Easy & Inexpensive, Infant & Toddler This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you know that one-year-old that wants to do everything by himself? Does he also love to mimic whatever you're doing? Montessori is ideal for this child! There are a lot of options for Montessori toys for a 1-year-old. Like many parents, you might assume that Montessori activities are too involved for one-year-old children. Nothing could be further from the truth! There are loads of Montessori activities for one-year-olds.

Montessori revolves around three things: hands-on learning, self-directed learning, and developing key life skills like independence, self-esteem, and concentration. While the typical one-year-old isn't ready to play collaboratively, there are lots of hands-on learning and self-directed activities that they are developmentally ready to tackle. To give you an idea, we've compiled a brief list of examples that are suitable for toddlers between the ages of 12 and 24 months.

5 Easy Montessori Activities for a One-Year-Old

Banana Peeling – This tasty activity is easy for parents to prepare. It doubles as a snacking opportunity too, so you can take care of two birds with one stone. Cut an unpeeled banana into thick slices. They will resemble thick disks. Carefully slice along one side of each to make a “starting place” for your little one to grab onto, and then demonstrate to them how to lift and pull the peel off of the banana slice. Most one-year-olds are able to handle this well, and they love the payoff: a delicious slice of banana! I love this banana slicer from Montessori Services!
Threading with Large Beads, a Strainer, or a Can – This activity is great for developing hand-to-eye coordination in toddlers. Clean out an old coffee can or any container with a thin, plastic lid that snaps on securely. Poke small holes around the lid, and get some thin, colorful sticks to push through the holes. Make sure that the sticks are long, so that they can't be swallowed by your tot. Instruct your child to put all of the sticks in the container by pushing them through the holes. If they appear to struggle, consider making the holes a little bigger.

More Activities for 12-Month-Olds

Pointing and Naming – Because it can be done just about anywhere, this activity is very useful in a number of situations. As you've probably surmised, it simply involves pointing to objects and asking your child to name them. You can do this with actual children's picture books, or you can simply point out objects when you're out and about with your kid. As your child gets older, you can also create a photo album with photos of friends and loved ones and have them name each one as you point to them.
Loading & Unload Clothes – Get a little help on laundry day by including your toddler. Place the dirty clothes hamper by the washing machine, and show your little one how to place clothes inside. Most kids get a kick out of it, and you get a little assistance too!
Peeling Stickers – Stock up on poster boards and packs of stickers. Let your toddler decorate the poster board with dots as they see fit. Demonstrate how to peel stickers and intervene when you need to. Stickers are an excellent way to help develop fine motor skills.

Infant & Toddler Montessori Resources

Montessori Services has loads of infant & toddler Montessori items
AMS Suggested Infant & Toddler Materials
Early School Materials for Infants & Toddlers
Amazon has endless ideas for Montessori toddler & infant activities
Montessori in the Home for Infants and Toddlers
Montessori Toys for Babies & Toddlers: 7+ Ideas for You
The Ultimate Infant & Toddler Montessori Toys Guide
My Top Infant and Toddler Montessori Materials

As you can see, there are all kinds of ways to introduce your one-year-old to Montessori activities. By starting your child on them early in life, they will get that much more out of their Montessori learning experiences. The greatest part about the Montessori lifestyle is how many activity variations and extensions exist! Use your imagination and follow your child's lead. A little observation can go a long way.

Best,

Marnie

Easy and Inexpensive Montessori Infant & Toddler Activities

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

Bringing Montessori into your home or classroom doesn't have to break the bank. There are simple and inexpensive ways to put together and to present Montessori Infant & Toddler Activities. Here are a few ideas for one-year-olds and two-year-olds!

Montessori Toddler Activities

Discovery Bottles

Sensory bottles are wonderful material for toddlers and infants. Plus the use of sensory bottles begins to ingrain important lessons of mindfulness that will help with anxiety later in life. Babies' are mesmerized by discovery bottles. These bottles ignite the senses Isolating a quality is a great way to approach bottles whether with sight (e.g) color, sound (loud versus quiet), texture (soft versus hard), and even smell.

Nature Basket

Bring nature indoors with a nature basket or nature table filled with various items preferably you and your child have collected over time.

Hole in a Box or Can

Recycle a box or can, cut a hole in it, and experiment with different items like Pom Poms, coins, beads, beans, or pasta.

Sand & Water Play Toddler Activity

Go to the beach, go find a sandbox at a park. Let your child get his fingers, hands, and feet dirty. Give the opportunity to explore with tools for scooping, sifting, and pouring. Water play can be as simple as taking a bath. I sometimes lay out a towel or shower curtain with a medium sized container of water for my infant.

Textured Balls

My one year old can't get enough of these textured balls. Great for sensory exploration, playing, and early science concepts.

Pounding

There are a number of hammering or pounding materials available for infants and toddlers. My sons like this hammering toy. Pounding works those hand-eye coordination skills. My son also enjoys “making music” with the pounding sounds.

Finger Painting Toddler Activity

There are plenty of safe finger paints to buy off the shelf but also try mud and these amazing homemade fingerprinting recipes from Tinkerlab. Learn Play Imagine has a great round-up of all sorts of painting fun for infants and toddlers.

Real Life Tools for Toddlers

Yes, you read correctly. Young children can explore with real tools. Obviously, don't hand a child a chainsaw but the basics are a good start. Make sure you introduce and demonstrate how to use the tool (whether he takes your lead or not!) in a safe environment where the child isn't going to break anything or injure anyone. Montessori Services offers a Tool Set for Young Kids. The whole set is not infant and toddler appropriate but a few items, like the small hammer and the stubby screwdriver, are perfect for that stage. You could also go to your local hardware store and purchase large nuts and bolts (to avoid choking hazards and help those little hands develop) to screw on and off.

Montessori Music Basket

This one is so much fun! Our basket is filled with a mix of “toy” instruments (like Melissa & Doug's Band in a Box, which we love!) and real instruments I found at a local thrift store. Score! Add a few fun books and you're good to go!

Climbing & Balancing

Find a safe space to let your child climb up and climb down. You don't need to hover and you don't need to totally hands-off if that makes sense. Just give the child an opportunity to practice those big gross motor skills. Examples include an open gym session at a local community center, climbing pillows, climbing stairs, and mini scooters (my one-year-old likes to sit or kneel on a scooter and push himself around the yard).

Tearing Paper Activity

Sounds odd, I know, but this activity is beneficial and worthwhile for a wide age range. The sound of the paper tearing and the fine motor work makes this simple activity perfect for kids and caretakers. Offer different types of paper to explore sound, textures, and the use of different muscle groups depending on how difficult tearing the paper may be for the child.

Pulling Scarves from a Box

Scarves offer a variety of learning for kids with color, texture, coordination, and fine motor. Stuff an old tissue box with scarves and your child will adore you!

Pulling Laces or Ribbons through a Hole

Anchor the ribbon or lace with knots at each end so that the child can pull from one end and then pull from the other end. Super simple and inexpensive!

Montessori Baby Nature Activities

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Positive Parenting Tagged With: Infant & Toddler, Nature, Parenting This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This post includes ideas for bringing babies into nature. Nature is the ultimate sensory, learning, and developmental experience.

Finding a way to get children outside more often is a hot topic with parents and educators learning creative ways to bring nature to children in learning and everyday life. You don't have to live on a farm or in the country, outside a city, to integrate nature into your life. A city with its streets and parks has much to offer us in terms of nature.

[clickToTweet tweet=”“We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole.” ― Richard Louv” quote=”“We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole.” ― Richard Louv”]

Montessori Infant Activities

Blanket & Books

Simply be still and read with and to your baby

Crawl in the Grass

Both of you! Take your shoes off and play with your child. Watch her sense of awe and wonder ignite as she explores a texture as simple as grass.

Listen to the Ocean

One of my all time favorite activities as an adult and a child is spending time at the ocean, smelling, listening, throwing rocks, and exploring the piles of driftwood. The sounds of the ocean bring a serenity unlike any other I experience in my life. Children need to be “grounded” every so often. The ocean will do that for us.

Natural Treasure Basket

Take a nature journey, short or long, and gather items along the way. For example, types of cones, bark, feathers, rocks, leaves, and moss. Find a sitting spot and explore nature's treasure basket

Mud Painting

Think: Finger Painting Au Natural! If the dirt is dry, that'll work too. Paint on bodies, on deck surfaces, on driveways! The world is your canvas!

Be Outside in the Rain

Watch this baby's first experience in rain and you'll see the joy it brings children.

Go on a Smell Hunt

The smells of nature are as compelling and profound as the sounds of nature. This activity is the nose's version of a Listening Walk! Simple take in the air and note the smells as you explore with your baby.

Build a Garden

A child is never too young to visit a nursery, explore seeds, and dig into the soil!

Find a Leaf Pile

Let your baby jump, explore, feel, tear, and crumble the leaves. He will be filled with joy.

I hope we inspired you today!

Marnie

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