Art Lessons: Inset Designs

Our Didax plastic insets from amazon are a favorite activity.  All you need is the insets, colored pencils, paper cut to size, and a hard surface.  

There are ten shapes in the series (see below.)

We use the series of lessons found at Montessori world. You can see our progression above.  

1.  One pink inset traced, colored with straight lines, picking up the pencil each time. 

2.  One shape rotated.  

3.  Trace the window, then trace the actual shape and see how close you can get.

4.  Use more than one shape.

5.  Make a symmetrical design and play with color.

6.  Move the stencil over the page evenly to fill the whole sheet.

But, of course, I just show them these lessons each time I set it out.  BUT,  I don't interrupt whatever they decide to do with it.

Motor Development: Little Chains and Links

This activity is popular from my nine year old all the way to the ten month old.  She can't do the links but LOVES playing with the finished product.  Little ghosty!

Materials:  6-1 foot lengths of cheap chain from Depot (~$.60 per foot), a pile of unused "quick links" from grampa's garage, caribeaners (optional)

This takes very little presentation.  The kids just run with it.  

Motor Development: Table Lessons

Little Kid got bored doing his school work, so we took a break for some practical life lessons.

First, we went over the names of something nearby. 

Cord, plug, socket (or outlet), floor lamp, bulb, lampshade (none of my kids knew "lampshade."  Huh.), table, table legs, table leaf (WHAT?).  He didn't understand "table leaf" so...we learned how to table apart.   

  And put it back together. 

 And take it apart. And put it back together.  You know how it goes. 

After all that work, his muscles were all tuckered out.  So, we had a lazy susan lesson.  He'd been curious about this little gadget for ages.  We set up a tiny dish part and practiced using the lazy susan and our good manners.

Then, of course, since I'm an old waitress, I showed him how to "bus" the table.  Then he did it.....about ten times.  HA!

Grading: Bolts

This is one of our favorite activities.  I saw it first in Montessori at Home.  He has a specific set of measurements for grading the bolts, washers, and nuts, but my home improvement store didn't carry those sizes, so I just got the biggest bolt I could find and worked my way down in increments.  The associate on that row must have thought I was crazy.

Anyway, I just used a dollar store tray and sheet of foam with at least six different sized bolts, nuts, and five matching washers.  I have  the kids grade them according to size and then put them together.  At first they tried to do it without grading, but as a larger washer will fit on any of the bolts that are smaller, they got  confused, so grading is necessary. 

Of course my boys HAVE to think outside the box...

 And let's don't forget the bunny ears....

Motor Development: Caribeaners

Materials:  4/$1 caribeaners from Walmart, dollar store tray with liner. 

How To: 
1.  Show child how to make a chain.
2.  Unlink chain and place materials back in tray.

Notes:  If I had it to do over again, I would get a LOT more caribeaners and limit the colors.  These could be used for patterning, but I really have too many colors going here. Also, this is a little kid activity.  Even my five year old thought it was too "baby."

Motor Development: Pill (Mint) Cutting

This is perhaps the most popular center I've ever put out!

Materials:  Dollar Tree pill box, Dollar Tree pill cutter, Dollar Tree cookie tray, liner, colored breath mints, bowl for unsatisfactory cuts (according to them, not me)

How to:
1.  Call child over.
2.  Demonstrate cutting a few mints
3.  Sort divided mints by color into the pill box.
4.  Stand back and buy more mints!

They cut...

and cut....

and cut...

I had to resort to finding cheaper mints because they sliced $4 worth the first day!  But, now I have tons of tiny mints to hand out in mass, arranged by color and taste.

Motor Development: Sanding and Screws

Materials Needed:  Dollar Tree tray, Dollar tree ramekin for screws, three screws, small screwdriver, piece of scrap lumber (got mine from the trash can in the cutting section at Lowe's), sanding sponge

Set up and presentation:

1.  Before calling child, assemble materials as shown and make a few starter holes in your lumber.
2.  Call child over and tell him you have something (totally cool) to show him.
3.  Ask child to feel the wood before you sand.
4.  Demonstrate sanding the lumber, with the grain, holding it steady.
5.  Draw child's attention to the powder created and the new feel of the wood.
6.  Then demonstrate placing a screw in a hole and screwing into the wood.
7.  Then unscrew and place it back in the ramekin.
8.  Place materials back on tray so they are ready for the next time.

Motor Development: Whipping Bubbles

This is great for motor skills and entertains children from two to ten.  

Materials Needed:  towel, Dollar Tree boot drying tray, pot, water, dish soap, hand crank beater

How to Set up and Present:

1.  Place all items on tray as shown.

2.  Demonstrate beating* with the hand mixer to create foam.

3.  Demonstrate a small spill and wipe up with towel.

*Child may need help learning to position the beater in vertical position.  

Variations:  

• Add food coloring to create colored foam.
• Place in tub so child can create enough foam to over flow the bowl (especially for older children who can REALLY make some bubbles.)
• Have child use grater and bar soap to add an extra step.

Motor Development: Whisking, Basting, Spatula Bubbles

Materials needed:  two bowls, Dollar Tree ramekins, Dollar Tree baster, Dollar Tree little spatulas, Dollar Tree boot drying tray, whisk, dish towel (not shown), water, dish soap (optional: grater, soap instead of dish liquid)

How to set up the center and present:

1.  Place all materials on tray as seen above.

2.  Tell child that you have something to show them.

3.  Using the whisk, show child how to "draw straight lines on the bottom of the bowl" briskly.  (Pressure on the bottom of the bowl eliminates sloshing.)

4.  Once the bubbles are significant, show child how to scoop the bubbles into the ramekins with the spatula.

5.  Once the bubbles are removed, show child how to move the water into the bowl with the turkey baster.

6.  Wipe out the bowl with the towel.  

7.  Return water to main bowl by pouring, and bubbles by scraping out with spatula.

8.  Wipe out ramekins and small bowl.

9.  Place utensils back on tray and check for spills.

10.  Wipe up with towel.

Writing Skills: Dollar Store Zen Garden

Little Kid is resistant to writing. He struggles with fine motor. He has problems with pressure and force and so many different aspects of writing that I wanted to reduce the variables and just work on letter formation.

We use Handwriting without Tears which is developed by an Occupational Therapist and follows hand development. Additionally, by learning our capitals to write, it doesn't cross over with our lower case reading and allows him to focus on hand control alone. Letters start on the "smiley face side" or the "not smiley face side."

And with HWT, children learn to write with the frame of a small chalkboard which puts boundaries on the letter and give them a straight edge to push against. I liked that and wanted to have a "frame" on our sand writing as well. (Not to mention keeping the sand corralled.)

Materials Needed: Dollar Tree Zen Garden, a smiley face sticker, chopstick or other stick, paper cut to size, fat writing utensil (crayon or marker), Dollar Tree cookie tray, foam or construction paper for a liner.

How to:

(Stage 1) Place a SMALL amount of sand in the garden. It should barely cover the bottom. You want to see the letters come through well. Allow child to use his finger or perhaps one of the rocks to write.

(Stage 2) Encourage child to use chopstick or the back end of the rake that came with the set to write in the sand.

(Stage 3) Put paper cut to size in the garden. (Oooh, laminated paper and a wipe off marker would be brilliant...must try today.) Make sure it's tight so the writing implement doesn't make it scoot or dig under, hence the need for something FAT to write with.

Motor Development, Sorting: Chopstick Puffballs

My children are older, so be sure your child is ready for this activity before you introduce it to him. If he's too young to manage the sticks on his own, perhaps pick up the little-kid cheater grips from your local sushi restaurant.

Materials needed: Dollar Tree cookie tray, ice cube tray, small loaf pan, Dollar tree puff balls and package of chop sticks, construction paper or foam to line the tray.

How to:

1. Set up tray as shown.

2. Using one of the extra sets of chopstick in the pack, review the proper way to hold chopsticks. Allow child to copy your hands with his own pair and practice the grasp until firm.

3. Demonstrate slowly transferring the puffs from the pan to the ice cube tray.

4. Once the child feels comfortable, you can suggest that he sort them by color.

Motor Development: Dry Pouring

Above you see that the seven-year-old took over the five-year-old's center.  I find that most centers interest older children, even if it only takes a few minutes to master the skill.  They won't be outdone by the little kid.

My children are older, so I combines SEVERAL dry pouring centers into one activity.  For very young children, only one type of vessel is needed per session.

Materials Needed:  assorted sized vessels, spoon, Dollar tree tray, liner, beans (size depends on age of child, smaller child, bigger beans so spills are less overwhelming.)

Round One
1.  Start with two vessels as shown below.
2.  Demonstrate pouring.
3.  Use fingers to pick up lentils.
4.  Allow child as much time as desired repeating your motions.





Round Two
1.  Use smaller vessels as shown below.
2.  Repeat steps from Round One.




Round Three
1.  Demonstrate pouring in the air between vessels.
2.  Steps 3,4 from Round One.



Round Four
1.  Demonstrate pouring between TINY vessels as shown below.
2.  Repeat as in previous exercises.


All the kids loves the *tiny* pouring.


Round Five...Spooning
1.  Place spoon, bowl, and cup on tray.
2.  Demonstrate spooning between vessels, picking up spilled beans.
3.  Allow child to repeat.

Round Six...Scooping

1.  Show child how to scoop the beans from one container to the other using the tiny cups and/or measuring cups.

2.  Remember to repeat cleaning up the spilled beans.

3.  Allow child to repeat.

  

4.  Give child access to all of the vessels used and allow some free play.

Motor Development: Sweeping Center

My seven-year-old was sweeping the kitchen, and we kept fussing at her for doing it all...crazy.  She was all over the place.  So, I remembered the "sweeping the bean" activity I saw in a Montessori pre-school.  Now, she's genius at it.

Materials Needed:  masking tape, broom, dust pan with brush, cereal or beans

Set-up and Presentation:
1.  Tape a three sided square on the floor.  (I hope you have better luck with your tape than I.  See below.)
2.  Throw Rice Krispies on a limited area of the floor.
3.  Retrieve broom from it's "home."
4.  Demonstrate how to hold broom, plant feet, and sweep around self, drawing all debris back to the taped square.



5.  Demonstrate using dust pan and dumping contents into the trash.
6.  Throw Rice Krispies down again and let them try.
7.  Instruct child to repeat as often as desired, as long as the floor is clean once she is finished.

My seven-year-old repeated this on her own several times.  In the end, we taped three squares all over the kitchen so that she could effectively sweep an actual floor.  We explained that in the future, she choose an imaginary square in each area of the kitchen to sweep into, rather than dragging all the dirt across the floor to the square on one side of the room.

Patterning: Goldfish

Little needs more practice in foundational math skills: patterning and sorting. He's not going to go for the usual cut and paste activities you can find in online kindergarten and preschool packs. I can make him do it, but we'll spend more time on refining his "obedience" than learning the skill.

For skills that Little resists, I try to incorporate treats. This activity from Pre-Kinders fit the bill. I printed out her sheets and laminated them on my new birthday laminator. Little took to it like a fish to water (tee-hee).

There is one little hiccup in this activity. I'm assuming it was made before Goldfish switched to "natural colors." Now there isn't separate RED and PURPLE colors. So I suggest lopping off that bottom fish from the sorting page and cutting the pattern rows into strips before you laminate. That way you can toss out any strips that use the purple. For us though, we just avoid using the rows that have BOTH red and purple. Little knows that the red ones can be used for either color.

Motor Development: Braiding Post

Materials needed: Three different dollar store fleece scarves and one sturdy piece of furniture to use as a braiding post.

How to:

1. Tie all three scarves in a knot on the post.

2. Call the child over and explain that you are going to show them how to braid.

3. Slowly and methodically demonstrate bringing pieces to the middle and tightening.

4. Show the child how to undo the braid when she's finished.

Using the different patterned scarves helps the child see what is happening to each strand. If all the strands are the same, it's hard to keep your place.

Middle practiced all week and was so pleased to finally know how to braid.

Motor Development: Scrubbing the Sink

Little Kid blew flour all over Grammy's bathroom when I wasn't looking. So, he learned to scrub a sink.

This routine is a mixture of fun, responsibility, fine and gross motor skills, and practical living. It's beautiful. It's all kinds of pinching, squeezing, grasping, and twisting practice. Great for kids with trunk weakness, low grip strength, or writing motor skill struggles. Develops those growing hand and arm muscles in a sneaky, somewhat fun way. (Well, fun the first time or two.)

Materials needed: sink, small grater, bar of soap, handbeater, towel for drying

1. Have child grate soap on the counter. (See above)

2. Have child brush flakes into sink of warm water and use hand beater to get the suds going.

3. Soak and squeeze a sponge until it's bubbly.

4. Scrub counter in little circles, moving left to right, top to bottom. (This is obviously not 100% necessary, but the more you can sneak this in on little kids, the easier math and reading are later.)

5. Drain sink. Rinse sponge. Wipe down to remove suds.

6. Repeat until not longer soapy.

7. Dry with a towel and put away supplies.

Sometimes little kids want to "practice" big people skills. If you're little person thinks of scrubbing as a big person thing, he might want to do it a few times in a row. Remember that the clean sink isn't the goal. It's all that motor practice and self-esteem building that comes from mastering a "grown up" skill. So be sure to allow them to repeat the whole process as many times as they like.

*Note: If you don't have a handbeater and grater, you may, of course, show them how to put a drop of soap on the counter, however, you miss out on all that lovely motor work that comes from the grating and beating.

Motor Development: Melty Beads

I think they're commercially called "Perler Beads". But, these little guys are ridiculously entertaining.

Most importantly, they're MAGIC for that "pinch" in the tripod grasp. Little Kid struggles with writing and fine motor. He doesn't like to color or do anything that resembles it. These itty bitty wonders, though, have him practicing his fine motor for hours.

Now, I'm not an art mom. I don't want my kids activities to produce beloved creations that we have to save forever. I. Hate. Clutter. But these little guys are so stackable and petite that I don't mind keeping them around.

We've tried a mix of brands and let me tell you one thing...they aren't all the same size. The ones from Walmart won't fit the peg boards from the Dollar Store. That, and they iron differently. Some melt faster than others so you really don't want to mix them. Pick a brand and stick with it.

Materials Needed: melty beads with peg boards and ironing sheets, two dollar store cookie sheets, one tupperware to hold some beads, foam or construction paper for a cookie sheet liner, and an iron.

How to set up the center:

1. Pour a reasonable amount of beads into a tupperware with a TOP. (Do not get out the whole 8500 beads!) Set out one peg board per child.

2. Put out a tray with a lip for the work area. I use dollar store cookie trays lined with walmart foam or construction paper.

3. The tray at the top of the picture is usually for finished creations, ready to iron. Beware, your child should not carry these around the house before they're ironed. They fall apart really easily. Having a deposit spot on the table for those awaiting ironing avoids a lot of tears.

4. Iron the creations at the end of your school day.

Motor Development: Hammering

This center seems dangerous, until you learn the clothes pin trick!  My five year old LOVES it.

Materials Needed: small-ish hammer, nails, Dollar tree tray, construction paper or foam liner, small tin to hold nails, stump, clothes pin.

Set-up and Presentation:

1.  Call child over and tell him you have something (awesome) to show him.
2.  Carefully choose one nail from the tin and place it in the clothes pin.  I use the end, but my five year old likes to place it in the mini-hole close to the spring as seen below.

3.  Place nail on stump, show child how to grip hammer, and start the nail into the wood.
4.  Remove clothes pin (placing it back in tray) and hammer in the rest of the way.
5.  Observe child's first attempt to set nail with clothes pin and correct (for safety.)

Notes:  If you have more than one child, you may need to let them know how many nails they can each have.  Otherwise, first child may use all the nails.

Variations:  On the second presentation, show child how to remove nails as well and place in another tin.  These nails will likely no longer be useful for hammering due to warping.

Sorting: Glowing Stars

This is an entertainment center to keep the kids busy while I work with one, but it sneaks in some math skills without anyone realizing they're doing it.

Materials needed: Dollar Tree glowing stars, Dollar Tree cookie sheets.

How To:

1. Place stars on cookie tray IN ONE LAYER on the bathroom counter.

2. Turn on the lights on in the bathroom to "charge them up."

3. Place a mat on the floor.

4. Show the child how to remove the trays from the counter to the floor, close the door, and turns off the lights.

5. Show him how to sort the stars according to size or color.

6. Show him then how to finish the activity: turn on the lights, return the stars to the trays, places them on the counter, and open the door.