My Montessori Journey: Make-Your-Own Muffins

Another new work on the shelves this week is "Make Your Own Muffins" for the Bakery Shop song. The Bakery Shop song is a favorite in our classroom. I always use it at the beginning of the school year because the children love it so much and it encourages individual participation in a fun way. This song can help shy children overcome their fears of participating in group time. Please use the link above for a full description of the song and activity.

Even though I've used this song every year, this is the first year I've had a related activity in the classroom. I am pretty sure it's going to be a big hit! I've had the muffins I use for song props forever (or at least for 11 years) and I don't have a master of the pattern I used. When I decided to set up an activity where the children could make their own muffins to take home, I did a Google search to find a simple drawing of a cupcake or muffin. The one I liked best was from Fresh Coloring. I used this as a template for the work I set up. In case you are wanting to make your own, I'll describe how I went about making this.

Using the cupcake image from Fresh Coloring, I reduced it's size to about 25% of the original size on a copy machine. When I create work for the classroom that involves paper I always try to conserve, so I wanted to be able to get 8 muffins in 2 rows of four across on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper two times. Does that make sense? In other words, I wanted to get two "student sets" of muffins on each page. So, using my little tiny cupcake images, I made a master copy with 2 rows of 4 muffins at the top and 2 rows of 4 on the bottom of a regular sheet of copy paper. I used a ruler and black marker to draw cutting lines between the muffins. This is really helpful to young children. Without cutting lines, they would be very likely to cut the muffins into shreds. After making the master copy I copied a bunch of these onto white cardstock so they would be sturdier for lots of singing and playing at home.

I set up the activity in a little basket as shown below. The cardstock copies are on the bottom and a basket of the necessary crayons and a pair of scissors on top.

To do this work the child carries the basket to a table and sets up the work area as shown. The first step is to color the muffins, one of each color. Then the child cuts out the muffins on the black lines.

Once they have colored and cut out their muffins, they bring them to a teacher to add the "sugar on the top." A teacher then supervises the child as they place a small dab of glue on the muffin top, then sprinkle some white glitter onto the glue. The glitter is shaken onto the plate where the excess can be collected and reused. After drying for a few minutes, the child may place their muffins into a little ziploc baggie to take home.

Here are some little hands carefully coloring their muffins..........

..........and sprinkling sugar on the top.

This photo shows two rows of finished muffins laid out to dry. They were made by two different children.

Here's a close-up with the "sugar" on the top.

I think it's safe to assume that there's going to be some bakery shopping going on in the homes of my students this week! (And probably for many weeks to come!)