Making Trail Mix

This work comes from my friend Sarah- a phenomenal Montessori teacher!

I found these containers at Cost Plus World Market.  They are perfect and a miniature replica of the bulk food containers, found at the grocery stores, only $2.00, and even come with a  tiny scoop!  

I put mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and cheerios in them- you can mix it up a you please and gear to your classroom's favorites and/or allergies.

I put numbered labels on the tops of the containers and they scoop that amount of each one into their cup!  Each child is allowed to do this one time daily ensuring we have enough for everyone and we don't run out too quickly.

Sense of Hearing

For this one we used stickers we made from google images printed on address labels.  Music instruments, a phone, a microphone, a picture of an ear and two different types of horns.

Of course since these were stickers they loved it! 

Play Dough Snowman Sculpting

I always have play dough out on the art shelf all throughout the year.  I make it fresh each month and dye it a different color according to the current season or holiday.  For January I dyed it light blue and put glitter in the water before mixing it all together to give it the shimmery, snow effect :)

Along with a roller, play dough knife, cookie cutters, etc. I put a small dish with 5 black beans, a small plastic carrot (from the school's practical life objects) and a coffee stir stick cut in half.  It has been very fun for them to create their own 3 dimensional snowman at work time!

My favorite play dough recipe
(From Miriam)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 Tbs. cream of tarter
1 cup water (add dye in water and glitter if you like)  I like the Martha Stewart glitter the best!
1 Tbs. oil

Combine dry and mix in a sauce pan.
Add wet and mix over medium heat until it forms a round ball.
Take off heat and knead until it gets cool and to the right consistency you like.  (Usually about 5 minutes)

Orange Peeling

Orange Peeling

This is the most simple food prep work I've ever put out on the shelves  and it is so well loved!  We noticed at lunch time that not many of the kids knew how to peel oranges so we thought we'd remedy that!

We just used the satsuma type oranges as they are soft and easy to peel.

We have one glass for the peels and one for the oranges.  

They separate them out, eat as many sections as they please, and share with their friends around the classroom.  The rules are that their their friend has to pick their own piece, the child who is peeling the oranges has to wash their hands before they do the work, and each child may only peel one a day.

Butterfly Life Cycle

These objects were another awesome find at Michaels made by Safari.  I've had the puzzle for years and I love how it matched up perfectly!  It was well used during our insect study.

Life Cycle of a Ladybug

Here is another Life Cycle activity for our insect unit.  I was so excited to find these objects this year at Michaels!  They are the Safari brand!  I used Google Images and Fonts for teachers to make this work as well as a black lined booklet for the kids to do.