Infant/Toddler Montessori Activities

What’s been on our shelf the last few weeks? Check it out:

Our Shelf Work

I switched up the work last week as I’ve been preparing new work. It’s been a bit of a trial and error process. I find that I get really excited about a work and then realize that Joey’s not quite ready to handle it yet.

That’s what happened with a work where you have water in a little bowl and sponge, and you place the sponge in the water bowl until it soaks up most of the water and then you squeeze the water out. Let’s just say that Joey was more interested in picking up the bowl of water and dumping it out (BTW, I’d only fill the bowl when I was presenting it not while it sat on the shelf.) I even tried to just introduce him to the sponge being wet, but he wasn’t interested. He didn’t even want to hold the wet sponge! I just left it on the shelf and this morning I caught him taking a bite out of the sponge! So…it’s been moved for good. We’ll come back to it later.

Learning 'In' and 'Out'

This activity introduces the child to the concept and words ‘in’ and ‘out.’ So far when I present this activity Joey stays very focused and will do it by himself once or twice.

Rubberband Instrument

This ended up on the shelf quite by accident, but has become the inspiration for a new project. Our kitchen is very small (by small I mean the refrigerator door can’t open all the way) and whenever I’m preparing meals Joey wants to be there right under my feet. I have three cabinets he can reach. One he’s allowed to open and play in, one holds kitchen appliances like the bread machine and food processor, and the third the heavy pots and pans. The third cabinet has a rubberband holding the doors closed and one day Joey started playing with them and they were making the usual rubberband noise, which he enjoyed.

So, I found a few more rubberbands (all the same color) and put them on this box. It’s the “music” work on the shelf. Occasionally, we’ll strum it with a spoon or other object. But it made me think I should make a music basket! My husband has a pair of drum sticks Joey pulls out of a cabinet and yesterday he found a whistle…so a music basket is in the works!

Experiencing Different Sounds

These are just many water bottles, cleaned, labels removed, and now have matching labels. Inside each is a different object (all measured the same): black beans, rice, oats, and grits. Obviously, each bottle makes a different sound and the child simply shakes the bottles to hear the sounds. I made them so that as he gains more experience he can put the bottles in order with the loudest to softest sound or vice versa.

Stacking Rings

The usual stacking rings. They stack…not much else to be said. Joey’s just figured how to pull them off without setting it upside down. In the last few days he’s been able to put the largest ring on by himself! This activity doesn’t yet hold his attention for very long, but it’s getting better. (He’s working with it right now. Of course, he’s throwing the rings up in the air!)

Red Treasure Basket

I have to say, I love Treasure Baskets! I haven’t really formally introduced Joey to colors yet, so I decided to do a treasure basket for each of the primary colors and staying with it for two weeks. We’ve started with red and next week we’ll switch to yellow.

Matching Lid to Pot

This activity is also pretty self-explanatory. He puts the lid on the pot. It sounds easy, but it takes a lot of coordination for a little guy! We had this activity while at my parent’s house, but with a different pot the same size although it was much lighter. On occasion Joey gets frustrated with it and definitely struggled with the heavier weight at first, but he’s frustration has lessened and he has become more successful at putting the lid on the pot.

That’s what we’ve got going for now…any suggestions or ideas? I’d love to hear them…