Montessori Activities: Valentine’s Day

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A few weeks ago, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, I switched out the Practical Life shelves in the classroom. The Practical Life area in a Montessori classroom develops a child’s coordination, concentration, independence and sense of order. Activities present help children with everyday living skills: pouring, scooping, spooning, twisting, care of self, care of the environment, and so on. It’s important that each material is on it’s own separate tray. Trays define a workspace, keep items contained, ensure that spills are confined to a small location and enable a child to take out, work with, and put away the entire material easily.

Here are some of the Valentine’s Day-themed fine motor activities:

The progression in Practical Life materials moves from whole hand to fingers meaning pitchers without handles come first. A child grasps the pitcher with their whole hand which is easier than trying to pick up a pitcher with their fingers.

Dry pouring comes first followed by wet pouring. A dry spill (stones, sand, beads, etc.) is easier to clean up than water. Also, clear pitchers should be introduced before something opaque. The thought behind this is that a child can see the water in a clear glass but not one in a colored one. They are more likely to spill if they cannot see what’s inside.

Once a child has mastered the act of pouring, you can add in some extensions like a funnel. This tray has a small funnel with it (it was in the dishwasher when I took this picture).

Growing patience and building up stamina to complete longer works is important. When preparing activities for spooning, it’s a good idea to present a first material where a child must spoon one object at a time. They should transfer the beads carefully and diligently and without allowing the beads to make noise. Home Goods and TJ Maxx are great places to find spoons for small hands.

After, you can introduce a scooping work that allows transferring more than one object at a time. This is a realistic material because this is something a child needs to know should they want to feed themselves, for example.

“Squeezing” also strengthens the muscles in the fingers and hands. Different tongs require a different level of skill. Multiple options is a good idea as using the muscles in the hand in this way only benefit the child. It’s no surprise that a great place to find small objects to transfer is Michaels craft store.

Threading is also a good skill for children to acquire. It takes planning, hand-eye coordination and patience. Always knot or tie the end of the string so a child knows they need to pull it that far and where they should stop.

Learning to “twist” is beneficial for so many everyday living skills a child needs. Opening a thermos or a water bottle for example, requires twisting.

Socking matching and folding is a good activity for fine motor skills, too.

This is a heart punch and children can “punch” out paper hearts then put them in little envelops to take home.

Perler beads are so tricky for those small fingers but so worth it! It’s also amazing to see what type of patterns children design. Some children are methodical and symmetrical. Other don’t care at all! 🙂

What fine motor activities do you put out?