Seasonal Classroom Guide January

JANUARY Seasonal Classroom Activities

FREE eBook

TrilliumMontessori.org

PreK-K Montessori Inspired Activities From Our Classroom to Yours 2014 Cover Photo by PhotoSteve101

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 live in the Southern Hemisphere, you may want to save this guide to use when Winter rolls around for you. 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.

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PRACTICAL LIFE IDEAS FOR THE FINE-MOTOR SHELF

Spooning sparkly balls onto packaging foam Use seasonal colors and materials to create a cohesive look to your shelves

Sorting and tweezing fuze beads

Pouring sparkly pom poms

Squeezing a drop of water onto a suction mat © TrilliumMontessori.org

PRACTICAL LIFE IDEAS

FOR THE

ART SHELF

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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

Close up matching of winter photographs

Things that go together

Sequencing a snowman

Things that go together: winter sports

Sort by color

What doesn’t belong?

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LANGUAGE IDEAS FOR ORAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Create a Question Game. Collect some seasonal pictures and have the child guess what you’re thinking of based on verbal clues you provide. Type up the clues so the readers in your class can lead the game.

Practice following single and multi step verbal directions

Where is the snowman’s hat? Learn positional words. This is fun to do with miniatures.

Create a little poetry basket with a seasonal song or chant. Find objects or pictures to go along with the song that the children can sequence.

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LANGUAGE IDEAS FOR PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS Use a winter theme to practice phonological awareness concepts. I created a set to go with the book “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.

Sort by Syllables Match beginning sounds

Rhyming Riddles

Ending sounds: what does not belong?

Do the middle sounds match? Segment and blend phonemes with Point & Slide cards © TrilliumMontessori.org

LANGUAGE IDEAS FOR BEGINNING READING

Match winter photos with initial letters

Initial letter clip cards

3-part reading cards with a winter theme

Build a snowman by matching uppercaselowercase and pictures

What’s hiding in the mitten? Spell short words

Find some winter photos and write short phonetic sentences for the children to read (or have the children write them! © TrilliumMontessori.org

ANIMALS IN WINTER

This is a great time to talk about how animals survive in the cold months Information cards about what animals do in the winter

Find pictures of animals and sort by how they survive in the winter: migrate, hibernate, or adapt Learn about animal tracks

Make a cave for a bear!

Make animal tracks in play dough © TrilliumMontessori.org

PRINTABLES GUIDE Montessori Style

Activities for January 1. Winter Question game 2. Winter Close-up matching 3. Winter Go-Togethers 4. Winter Rhyming Riddles 5. 0-10 Snowman Cards 6. Winter Photos for A-Z Letter Sound Sorting 7. Phonetic Reading 3-Part Cards 8. Phonetic Reading Sentences 9. Winter Living and Non-Living Sorting 10. Winter Plant and Animal Sorting http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Montessori-Style-Activities-for-January-1031494

January

Preschool Pack 1. Sorting by Color 2. Sorting by Size 3. Question Game 4. Following Directions 5. Shadow Matching 6. Matching- Find the Snowman’s Hat 7. Winter Sports Go-Togethers 8. What Doesn’t Belong? 9. Snowman Sequencing 10. Where’s the Snowman’s Hat? Prepositions http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/January-Preschool-Pack-1031481

Phonological Awareness Activities

The Mitten

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Word Awareness Activity: Stack a Block Rhyming Riddles Syllable Sorting Beginning Sound Matching Ending Sounds: Which One Doesn’t Belong? Middle Sounds: Same or Different? Point & Slide Cards for Phoneme Segmentation and Blending Phoneme Substitution Cards

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Mitten-Phonological-Awareness-Activities-10315

© TrilliumMontessori.org

PRINTABLES GUIDE PAGE 2 January

Phonics and Literacy 1. 2. 3. 4.

Upper and Lower Case Letter Matching Initial Letter Clip Cards What’s Hiding in the Mitten? Build –a-Word Cards What’s the Word? Clip Cards

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/January-Phonics-and-Literacy-Pack-1031474

Mini Unit

Animals in Winter 1. 2. 3. 4.

Animals in Winter Non-Fiction Book Winter is Cold Poem Animals in Winter Sorting Mats and Cards Help the Squirrel Find the Nuts! Sorting Real and Nonsense CVC Words

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mini-Unit-Animals-in-Winter-1031462

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