Seasonal Classroom Guide February

Cover Photo by Nerissa’s Ring

INTRODUCTION Hello! Thank you for downloading this Seasonal Classroom Activities Guide! I’ve been sharing ideas from my classroom for a couple of years on my blog . I thought it would be fun to gather all the ideas together in one place so I could have a simple resource to refer to when it comes time to change up the materials on the shelves each month. Hopefully you’ll be able to make some use of it too! Our school is located in the United States and these activities reflect the seasons, holidays, and family activities of this region.

If you want to be notified when the rest of the seasonal guides are ready (and get a whole bunch of free Montessori printables too), come on over to the blog and sign up for email updates: http://bit.ly/seasonalguides Thanks again and I hope you enjoy the ideas in here!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The activities in this guide are not intended to replace your regular Montessori materials. If you are new to Montessori, please understand that these types of activities are a very minor part of the classroom and should in no way be considered required in order to have a quality Montessori program. In fact, if they pose a distraction from the traditional materials, I would advise you to remove them from your class altogether. These are simply supplemental things you can add to spice up your shelves a little bit, and add a point of interest to skills that children need more practice with. As with all activities with children, please use adequate supervision and all safety precautions necessary.

© TrilliumMontessori.org

PRACTICAL LIFE IDEAS FOR THE FINE-MOTOR SHELF

Spooning sparkly balls into a pink ice tray from Ikea

Use seasonal colors and materials to create a cohesive look to your shelves

Use miniature creamers in your pouring work

Squeezing with a baster

Roll the die and count how many pom poms to transfer © TrilliumMontessori.org

PRACTICAL LIFE IDEAS FOR THE ART SHELF

Cutting strips

Cutting on lines

Pinpunching and gluing Fold, trace and cut to make a heart

Create a pattern necklace with pasta, beads, and paper hearts

Change up the ribbons in your introductory weaving work © TrilliumMontessori.org

MATCHING & SORTING The following activities will fit in a variety of areas of your classroom. Based on how your shelves are arranged, you may want to place these in your sensorial, early language, or even early math areas.

Shadow matching

Picture matching from our Valentine Vehicles printable pack

Sort Big, Medium and Small

I created the Valentine Vehicles pack to balance out all the hearts in our room in February!

Create a matching work with stickers on heart shaped cards

Sort by color

Color sorting with vehicles

Sort vehicles found in the air, land, or water © TrilliumMontessori.org

LANGUAGE IDEAS FOR PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS Use a seasonal theme to practice phonological awareness concepts. I created a set to go with the book “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose” by Lucile Colandro.

Sort by Syllables

Broken Hearts: Beginning Sound Matching Rhyming Riddles

Sorting Middle Sounds Segment and blend phonemes with Point & Slide cards © TrilliumMontessori.org

LANGUAGE IDEAS FOR BEGINNING READING

Letter cards

Love Letters: Make envelopes labeled with letters, fill with pictures that start with each letter

Love Letters: Make your own envelope from a heart shape

Candy Shop Middle Vowels: Read and sort

© TrilliumMontessori.org

EARLY MATH Resin hearts are easy to find at craft stores this time of the year. They make perfect counters for a variety of 0-10 counting activities

Memory Game of Numbers: open a small plastic heart to find a secret number. Count out the hearts. Valentine Vehicles number clip cards

Use as a variation of the Montessori Numbers and Counters

Math bean counters look like hearts!

© TrilliumMontessori.org

GRACE AND COURTESY

In Montessori classrooms, Grace and Courtesy lessons are a part of daily life.

Oral language development: Is It Kind?

How to offer and receive something

Telephone etiquette

How to greet someone

How to ask to join in

Deb Chitwood’s book on Amazon is a great resource for this © TrilliumMontessori.org

PRINTABLES GUIDE PAGE 1

Montessori at Home or School

How to Teach Grace and Courtesy By Deb Chitwood

Available on Amazon: Kindle Edition

Love Letters

Initial Letter-Sound Matching Available on TpT

Candy Shop

Middle Vowel Read and Sort Available on TpT

© TrilliumMontessori.org

PRINTABLES GUIDE PAGE 2 Valentine Vehicles

Preschool Pack Available on TpT 1. Sorting by Color 2. Sorting by Size 3. Truck Tracks: Cutting Exercise 4. Picture Matching 5. Shadow Matching 6. Sorting- Land, Water, Air 7. Social Skills: It is Kind? 8. Hauling Hearts: 0-10 Number Cards 9. Number Clip Cards 10. Upper and Lower Case Alphabet Flash Cards Phonological Awareness Activities

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose Available on TpT 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Word Awareness Activity: Line of Hearts Rhyming Riddles Syllable Sorting Beginning Sound Matching Point & Slide Cards for Phoneme Segmentation and Blending Phoneme Substitution Cards

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/February-Early-Learning-Activities-Bundle-1114005

© TrilliumMontessori.org