Easter Montessori Trays

This was our inaugural attempt at Montessori Trays, and I think they turned out really well.  I'm using a shelf we've had for ages, and some trays that I found at the dollar store.

Egg Transfer
Materials: Plastic eggs, egg tray, bunny tongs (used for egg dyeing), bucket to hold eggs.
How to: Have your child transfer eggs from the bucket to the tray using the tongs.

Egg Eraser Counting
Materials: egg erasers, magnet numbers
How to: Have your child pick a number and count out the amount of erasers that corresponds to each number.

Easter Sticker Cutting
Materials: paper w/ stickers, scissors
How to: Have your child cut in between each sticker

Egg Color Match Puzzles
Materials: egg template w/ each half colored, plastic eggs
How to: Have your child build an egg that matches the puzzle that they have chosen.

Sound Eggs
Materials: 12 plastic easter eggs (6 of each color), various fillings (I used rice, lentils, coins, 2 empty, pasta, and pony beads).
How to: Have your child choose an egg, shake it close to their ear, and try to match it to another egg by only listening.

JellyBean Spoon Transferring
Materials: jellybeans, ice cube tray w/ small holes, spoon
How to: Have your child transfer the jellybeans into the holes of the ice cube tray using the spoon.

Easter Egg Memory Game
Materials: Easter Eggs, various items that fit inside the eggs (2 of each)
How to: Have your child open one egg and try to find it's match.  This is just like a card memory game, but uses eggs instead.

Basic Chopstick Transfer

This is a simple activity that really helps work those fine motor skills.  M has a little bit of trouble using just one hand so she started off using both hands to maneuver the chopsticks.  This is an activity that will take a bit of practice, so mix up the colors and trays to make it fresh for your little one!

Basic Chopstick Transfer

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: ice tray or muffin tin, poms, child friendly chopsticks or tongs

How to: Have your child transfer the poms into and then back out of each compartment in the tray.

Basic Water Transfer

This is another one of those Montessori inspired activities that are great for fine motor skills.  As you can tell by the massive amount of water spilled, we need a lot more practice with this.  Next time I'll give M a sponge as well so that she can easily clean up her messes!

Basic Water Transfer

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: Ice tray, medicine dropper, small container filled with water, sponge

How to: Have your child transfer the water from the small container to the ice tray using the medicine dropper.

Wet Pouring

A few week ago I did a post on dry pouring.  M's been getting better at it, so I decided to try wet pouring with her.  Well, as you can see in the pictures it was a huge mess!  She definitely needs more practice until she gets to the point where she's no longer spilling.  I think next time I do this, I'll give her a little sponge to clean up her messes because the paper towels just weren't cutting it!

Wet Pouring

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: Small pitcher, several containers with increasingly smaller openings, water, sponge

How to:  Fill the pitcher with water and have your child practice pouring them into the containers and back again with as little spilling as possible.

Popsicle Stick Balancing

M enjoyed this activity, but kept getting a little frustrated because every time she placed a pebble, she would accidentally knock another one off.  She was determined to do it though!

Popsicle Stick Balancing

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: Popsicle sticks, glass pebbles

How to: Have your child balance the beads on top of the popsicle sticks.

Source: Shannon's Tot School

Golf Tee Hammering

A friend of ours takes her 2 year old to the Lowes kids clinics and it sounds like so much fun!  I'm a little bit worried if we go, that M won't have the skills to hammer and will get frustrated, so I decided to practice with this little activity.  She loved it!  I had to push the 'nails' in a tiny bit at first to get her started, but then she had so much fun hammering them in all the way!

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: piece of styrofoam, golf tees, kids hammer\

How to:  Have your kids hammer the tees into the foam.  Start them off if necessary, and make sure to teach them how to hold the nail. :)

Spooning Activities

Another great activity for hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. 

Spooning Activities

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials:  egg container (or any container with divisions, eg. muffin tins, pill box, etc), spoon, manipulatives to spoon (I used glass water beads)

How to:  Have your child spoon one manipulative into each section of your container, one at a time.

Pipe Cleaners & Parmesan Container

This is a great activity to help with concentration and hand-eye coordination.  This really held M's attention, and she even asked for it again after she woke up from her nap in the afternoon.

Pipe Cleaners & Parmesan Container

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills
Materials: pipe cleaners, Parmesan container
How to: Have your child fit a pipe cleaner into each hole.

Dry Pouring

A lot of my activities are inspired by Montessori ideas. Dry pouring is an important skill to master, not only because it enhances a child's ability to control their movements, but also because it assists in developing responsibility and independence. If you are looking for more, My Montessori Journey has tons of great variations on the dry pouring activity. By the way, M loved this activity. She seriously spent a good 45 minutes working on this before she got bored!

Dry Pouring

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: small pitcher, several containers with increasingly smaller openings, lentils (or beans or rice)

How to: Fill the pitcher with your dry materials and have your child practice pouring them into the containers and back again with as little spilling as possible. This is a skill that needs lots of practice before perfected!

Lacing Activities

Learning to lace develops fine motor skills and strengthens hand and finger coordination, which will later be important for writing. M had a little trouble getting started with the foam card, but hit her stride and did pretty well. The pasta and cheerios were much harder for her. With either a very long hold or a very small hole, she had to concentrate much more. She got too frustrated and left the table, so we will be practicing a little bit more with the cards before we try the pasta again.

Lacing Activities

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: String (with tape puckering one end for better grip) or shoelace and lacing material. Be creative! Foam, paper, or old greeting cards with holes punched in them; tubed pasta, cheerios, beads, etc.

How to: Have your child practice lacing the string in and out of the lacing materials. You may have to physically help them at first by placing your hand over theirs to demonstrate the process. If they get frustrated, don't push them to continue. Once the child is more proficient, they will enjoy the activity more.

Jar Lid Matching

We started off with a fairly easy activity this morning to ease M into Tot School. We'll be using lots of recycled items so if you plan on following along, start saving up your empty jars, coke bottles, toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, etc. I keep a huge bin in the garage that I put recyclable materials in for future projects.

Jar Lid Matching

Theme: Practical Life/Motor Skills

Materials: Jars w/ lids of various sizes

How to: Place the lids on a table with the lids off to one side. The child then matches the lids to the proper jars. You can also practice screwing and unscrewing lids, and arranging the jars in order according to size.

Source: Frugal Family Fun