Practical Life for the beginning of school

I know I have posted about some of these activities before, but a reader recently asked me what PL activities I would have out to begin the school year, so I thought I'd show you what is on my shelves for the first few weeks in the Practical Life area.  When I think of what to put out early in the year I try to find work that can easily be done successfully and independently by our new three-year-olds.  I also consider "points of interest" or, in other words, how to present a material in a way that will draw the child in so that they want to interact with it.  Considerations for point of interest include the uniqueness of the materials themselves as well as the types of vessels, trays or containers and how they coordinate to make the activity aesthetically pleasing.  All activities in the Practical Life area should in some way encourage children to use and refine their fine motor skills.  These activities also indirectly assist the child's development by increasing their concentration as there is an obvious point at which the child is "finished" or "not finished."  We encourage children to finish each work they choose before returning it to the shelf.  It also must be returned in the same condition it was found.  Of course this takes lots of practice and some direction from the teachers.

For less than $2 at your local hardware store you can put this nuts and bolts activity together.  To do this the child simply finds the correct nut and threads it onto the corresponding bolt.  This is a wonderful activity for forcing "handedness" in that it requires children to use one hand as the "working" hand (the one that is threading the nut) and one hand as the "helping" hand (the one that holds the bolt).  It is interesting to observe individual children and how they approach this work.  This also requires a pretty good amount of concentration.  An additional point of interest are the glass bowls I have chosen.  When holding the metal nuts and bolts they add a pleasant "clinky" aspect to this activity.

Thrift store plastic apple bowls and fake apples (again thrifted and cut off from an apple garland).  The tweezers are used to grasp the apples by the stems and transfer them to the other bowl.

I love these purple metal footed bowls that were here when I acquired this classroom.  When paired with the glass stones, there is, again, a pleasant auditory point of interest to this work.  The child spoons the glass stones from one container to the other.

Always on my shelves at the beginning of the year, this marble tonging work rarely stays on the shelf during work time.  You can't see this well in the photo, but the tongs are slightly concave which allows them to be perfect for transferring the marbles to the teddy bear's suction cups.  You will need to experiment with the utensils you have on hand to be sure you find one that the children can successfully use with the slippery marbles.  (I am going to write a post VERY soon about sources for the suction pads because I get that question a lot.)

Jars and lids is a classic Montessori PL activity.  Just find an assortment of small containers with lids and group them together.  The rolled felt is to be unrolled and placed on the table.  The child then removes each lid and places the lids and containers on the felt to prevent rolling.  Then the child re-matches the lids to the containers, rolls the felt and.......done!

Apple erasers (available at most teacher supply stores.......these might actually be pencil toppers), tongs and an ice cube tray.  Ice cube trays are great for a variety of sorting, spooning, and tonging activities.  So don't forget to pull out your old trays and think outside the box!

 

I almost always have some variation of a pegboard out on the shelves all year.  This is the one I start with.  The pegs are large and it is easy for children to complete it.  As the year goes on the size of the pegs decreases and the quantity increases so by later in the year I have out a pegboard with very thin pegs and 100 total pegs.

This screwdriver board is a hit with all children.  It is available through Montessori Services.  See link on the sidebar.

I have not put this out before and now I can't imagine why!  Squeezing the clothespins with enough strength to attach them to the rim of the jar is perfect for exercising and strengthening finger muscles. 

A close-up showing one clothespin on the jar rim.

Very early this summer I bought the three ice cream bowls and spoons and the green polka dot tray at Dollar Tree.  I don't know if they still have them, but I am sure that's where I found them.  I added some pom-poms I had on hand to represent the ice cream scoops.  This is a combination activity that works on sorting by color and the fine motor skill of spooning.  This will be new to everyone this year and I am hoping the children enjoy it.

   
 
 Well, this concludes my little tour of the practical life shelves.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!
 
 

Comments

[cara]

Great way to use your resources. It is so easy to spend all of your money at the teacher supply store, but really you can make so many of your own materials. Thanks for the great ideas!

[Laura]

Hi, Mike. Im glad you are finding useful information here. The trays I think you were referring to were purchased from Montessori Services. Here is a link.........theones you are talking about would be the smaller-sized fiberglass ones in the link. Hope that helps! I love these trays. They are virtually indestructible.

http://www.montessoriservices.com/store/index.php?main_page=indexcPath=95_154_1458

Take care,
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Mike]

Dear Laura:

Thank you for this informative post. It gave my wife an I a great illustration of some simple lessons to tackle with our toddler.

The photos in some of your illustrations show what look to be relatively small plastic trays (red and blue). We've been looking for smaller trays and I'm wondering if you could tell me what size they are, and where I could get them if they are available.

Thank you for making your ideas and techniques available to us.

[Laura]

Thanks, Kimber!

To: directress@live.com

[Kimber]

Thank you for the tour, they are always so helpful! Good luck with your class this year!

[Laura]

Oh! I do need to write a post with those links. Thanks for the reminder. Ill try to get that up really soon!
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Kanga3033]

I would love to hear your sources on the bath mat suction cup thingies! I have been looking all over for these!

[Laura]

Thanks so much, Deb. Ill head over to check out your post. I appreciate the award!
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Deb Chitwood @ Living Montessori Now]

Great listing of practical life activities for the beginning of the school year! I linked to your page for my Montessori practical life post last Monday. I appreciate all the wonderful activities you share and gave you the Wild about Your Blog Award at http://LivingMontessoriNow.com/2010/08/20/awards-to-happily-pass-on/

[Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Blog]

Love this, and I love that all of the materials are readily available in most households. Great ideas!

[jamie]

so anxious for your give away results. :) i just keep perusing the site until then. thanks for the chance!

[Colleen]

what great materials for practical life.
Love the ice cream scoop spoons, the nuts and bolts work, the screws and screwdriver work, the bead transfer work with the teddy bear, and the apple eraser transfer work.
We are going to do have the nuts and bolts and the screwdriver and screws work out soon, as we are going to do some mini lessons about simple machines. this week, we are still in summer camp mode, doing Lego camp.
Well, as always, I enjoy reading your posts.
Have a nice week,
Colleen

[Victoria]

Its really neat to see these activities, I work in a 2-3 year old room and these are the mainstay of our work, I just love your ideas on seasonal variations and I'm working on collating lots of materials for that now. SO glad you are back! Vic

[Leptir]

I love ice-cream shaped bowls. sooooo cute :-)

[Ticia]

Very cool. I have a bunch of nuts and bolts to get out for my kids, and keep forgetting to do so.

[Laura]

Thanks! Its good to hear from you again too!

To: directress@live.com

[rm (rainbowmummy)]

I really enjoyed reading that, like I said, I've missed you!