Happy Easter! Although the holiday is now behind us, I waited until April to roll out our Easter and Spring activities. March was all about rainbows, shamrocks and other Irish inspirations, and I really wanted Easter to have a full month as well - so here we are, a bit late, with Easter fun.
As Seedlings evolves, I try to work in as many educational philosophies as I can, recently, I've created a 'Montessori-inspired' area in my classroom and while I don't kid myself that I'll ever actually own true Montessori materials, I make my best effort based on activities commonly found in Montessori classrooms. I roll in some Waldorf, Reggio and the Miss Lindsey special - shake it up - and our shelves are filled with colorful and creative invitations for the children.
This month's writing salt is yellow and scented with lemon essential oil. It's light and refreshing and gives the children an exciting new way to practice early writing skills.
This tray is a variation on the opening and closing activities of the Montessori method, the children can put the flower gems inside the eggs, count, sort, pattern, shake, you name it!
Sorting and matching are always more fun when you add tongs!!
Pink play dough scented with geranium essential oil gives this 'create an egg' invitation a little something extra for the children to discover as they play.
The sewing basket was added to the classroom just a short while ago and the children loved it immediately. I've sent quite a few fabric scraps with buttons sewn onto them home to Moms and Dads and I couldn't be more proud of those little hard-working fingers! I've refreshed the basket, adding new felt scraps, buttons and embroidery floss.
Our Easter/Spring sensory tub is back, this year residing in storage bin on the block table.
Each month, I rotate the materials on our art shelf. This area is always open for the children to create whenever the mood strikes. For April, I've added multicolored pom poms, a rainbow of tissue paper squares, sequins, and spring-themed self-stick foam shapes. I also trace seasonal or theme-related shapes for the children to cut and decorate - this month, I've made egg shapes on sheets of craft foam.
Happy April!!
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Great presentations, very colorful and creative educational tools, inspiring and exciting, I am very impressed with Seedlings program and way of educating.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! What a lovely note to read first thing in the morning! Made my day!
ReplyDeleteI've pinned the yellow, scented salt tray to make for my son. We've used regular salt, but it's nice to keep them guessing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Courtney! I change my salt each month, so it will (hopefully) not get boring. :)
DeleteThanks for sharing your spring activity ideas! The sewing basket and use of essential oils in some of your works are great ideas.
ReplyDeletehttp://trilliummontessori.org/learning-about-bugs/
Thanks for visiting - I'll be sure to pop on over and check out your link as well! :)
DeleteThese are beautiful hands on ideas! I found you through the linky party at Learn with Play at Home. Going to check out your other posts.:) Hope you visit my site too. -Deborah @ For The Love of Learning - http://fortheloveoflearningblog.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThank you, Deborah! I will definitely check you out!! :)
DeleteSuch cute ideas, loving the essential oils addition to your materials! I bet my daughter would love that...pinning this!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Beth! I love essential oils! I'm 'technically' a consultant, but I really just buy the oils for personal use - I use them in EVERYTHING!
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