So this is only my second week at setting up a Montessori style shelf for Lake, but I have been looking forward to it all week. Last week was a tester for me really, I set up a range of activities to try and gauge what she was into and how easy/ difficult she found things. Feeling a little more informed I was so excite to set up this weeks shelf...
So as last week (and I will continue to do so from now on) we have a small arts & crafts shelf, which is the house shaped shelf above. Lake loves arts & crafts so much but I have kept this small for now, we only have crayons, pencil and wax and paper. I plan to add more over time but I wanted to keep it simple while we are still new to this. She loves painting, and I will add painting and other arts & craft activity trays throughout the week.
Also on this shelf we have two activites:
First, we have this shape matching sticking activity. Lake loves anything sticky: glue, stickers, sellotape, anything. So I thought this would be a great way for her to match shapes. I drew a large square and triangle on a plain piece of paper then cut out little squares and triangles on a contrasting paper. I hoping she will match the shapes as she sticks. We haven't done this one before so I will see how she gets on. If she gets on well, I may add other shapes too next time.
Second, we have a little letter matching activity. I made this salt dough letter stones last week (CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW) as I want to start introducing letters to Lake. All she has to do is place the stones on the matching letters. I wanted to started super simple, so I just did one word, her name. I will probably switch up the word throughout the week. I don't think I will add multiple words just yet as i think Lake is a little young, but I will monitor how she gets on.
On her main shelf we have this matching activity. I recently purchased this as I though Lake would love the little animal faces, which she does and she loves to tell me the name of the animal as she picks them up, which is great too.
I made this name recognition plaque earlier this week and it has so far been a big success. Again this is introducing Lake to the letters of her name while working on her fine motor skills as she uses the pincers to fill it. She loves using pincers and the are a great way of preparing the hand and fingers for writing. CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW I MADE THIS PLAQUE
Play dough is definitely a favourite of Lakes at the minute. I kept this simple just with a rolling pin and stamps as I want her to work on apply pressure to the stamps to help strengthen her hands and fingers. Although she does just like rolling the play dough in her hands and making "wiggly worms." which is good too. I let Lake play how she likes with the activity trays, I don't force her to do exactly what I have planned of she doesn't want too. SEE HOW WE MADE TH PLAY DOUGH HERE
We have had this jigsaw road for a while now and Lake loves it (LINK HERE) and I recently bought these cars to go with it (LINK HERE). She loves to build the road it all different spots over the house and these are great because they are flexible. I like to keep some of Lakes old favourite toys on her shelf and not all toys/ activities are Montessori activities, but I like to set them up Montessori style as they really appeal to Lake this way and she seems to them a whole lot more than when they were in a toy box.
Lake has always love building blocks and its still one of her favourite things to do. She loves to build them up and know them down. She has a little habit of throwing things at the minute so I finding letting her know the blocks down helps to control this a little.
Last weeks jigsaw was way to simple for Lake, so i thought I would try this one (LINK HERE). I fear this one may be a little to hard for her but I will see how she gets on. I thought this particular one would be good because again it will help her start to recognise letters.
*Post contains some affliate links*
HAPPY SUNDAY!
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