The first day of school is only a couple of weeks away and I have been busy getting lots of works ready! The holiday schedule this year is very busy and leaves very little time for preparing the kids - but we will try our best! This year I am putting a special emphasis on all things APPLE in honor of Rosh Hashana.
I will use this basket during the first day or two when we start discussing things we use or eat at our Seudah. Later, the children can use the objects for independent matching work at a rug.
I like to start the year with simple
lacing activities like this bee hive and apple. Lacing with the stick gives little fingers more control.
Here is a tweezing work that I really like! I made little apples out of fimo clay which are still in great condition after being on the shelf last year. The tweezer is a strawberry huller, which opens wide enough to grab the apples.
It is hard to see in the picture, but the cups for this pouring work are apple-themed! The red jewels make a lovely sound against the ceramic which adds another level of interest to this visually appealing work!
This work is great for little hands to get some practice grasping medium-sized objects. When demonstrating this work I always move very slowly and call special attention to the sorting process. I find when I give the lesson this way, the child are more likely to slow down and gain the most from the grasping action.
To get those wrists warmed up, I have this spooning exercise. I think the miniature apples are very appealing to the children who chose this work often!
In addition to several puzzles in our puzzle box, I like to feature a puzzle in an individual tray. This is a nice puzzle featuring major symbols of Rosh Hashana.
In the beginning of the year I have many works that feature counting objects from one to ten. Here, I traced apple erasers onto white paper (backed onto red) and laminated it. I wrote matching numbers on each eraser. It is a great visual matching work even if a child does not yet know the numbers to ten.
I purchased this game from Apple Seed Montessori a number of years ago, and it is a favorite among the kids. It can be a simple, individual activity or a partner game. The "apples" are really tiny and require those fingers to get a good work out!
This is the first of several "how to draw" books that I out our during the year. The child flips through the book, adding an additional element to her drawing until the final product is achieved. These little books are very popular with many kids.
Making simple board games for the children is not that hard! Using apple stickers, I created a simple path that the game pieces follow. I used two more fimo apples (see above) for the game markers. For the die, I used a large one that I found at Michael's and put the same apple stickers on each face. I used dots from 1-3 for this initial game to make sure that even the youngest children can play right away!
Last year, I sent a bit of time finding great photos of many different varieties of apples for this matching work. The names of the apples are very interesting and fun to say. The kids enjoyed playing "memory" with this set.
I like to put out "thematic" crayons every once in a while. Here is a bowl of apple crayons I made using a chocolate mold. My kids helped me peel old crayons, melt them down, and then "paint" the molds to get the beautiful effects! They work best as rubbing crayons, but I have not decided what work to combine them with yet.
I made 3-part cards for the simanim! Hopefully we will have time for a lesson with the real foods before this goes on the shelf!
Here is an individual art project I will put out at a table. I saw the idea at My Montessori Journey blog and I can't wait to try it in my classroom. The kids use a portion of red paper to tear into bits and then glue it to a plate along with a pre-cut stem and leaf.
I am really getting excited for school to start!
