Our Montessori Monday activity this week was Rainbow Rice! I love rainbow anything. The colours are just so harmonious. Shortly after we had gotten all of our new Montessori supplies into clear shoeboxes, my son was right into the pile of boxes pulling at the rainbow rice & rainbow pasta. I guess he likes colour too.
Skill Learned
Fine Motor, Filling/Dumping
This filling/dumping activity just requires any containers you have on hand for the filling & dumping. I simply raided the kitchen drawer and recycling box for some different sized implements and away he went! He especially loved dumping into the egg carton segments. It was a great fine motor activity as well as a good one about using simple utensils like spoons, measuring cups. We talk about different fills (quarter, halves and full), about pouring carefully, or dumping quickly. We also needed to get over making a mess on the floor, that was okay – we swept the floor together afterwards. After seeing the clean up afterwards once, he wasn’t so worried about making a mess the next time.
After our first success with sensory bins, we decide to do more bins, and searched for other things we could add to them. Here is a list of recycled and thrift store materials we found to get your brainstorm started on what items would work well from your house!
Recycled materials you could add to your Montessori Monday sensory bin:
-Plastic containers (yogurt cups, cottage cheese containers)
-Meat trays (wash them well in hot water)
-Egg cartons
-Paper rolls
-Corks
-Aluminum pie plates or tart shells
-Keys
-Frozen juice lids
-Altoid Tins
-Clothespins
-Popsicle Sticks
-Glass bottles from juice, Starbucks pre-mixed coffee drinks
-Laundry detergent scoops
-Film Cannisters
-Prescription drug containers (rinse well)
Local thrift store items you can add to your Montessori Monday sensory bin:
-Vases
-Plastic Measuring Cups
-Glass Pitcher Measuring Cups
-Small creamers
-Mismatched spoons
What is your Montessori Monday activity of the week? What other recycled or found items have you used in your sensory bins?
a passionate recreation coordinator by day, crazy farm mama of two by night. i live outdoors: growing my own food, camping and hiking with my border collie with two active kids in tow. when I’m not writing, I’m experimenting with recipes, and crafts – or anything else that might keep the monkeys entertained.
Great list! Wish I had thought of lots of these when my children were young, Just want to point out that film canisters may have compounds containing silver in them…not sure if this is detrimental, but if your toddler likes to still put things in their mouth, this one might be best to avoid.
Thanks Karen! We typically put our recycled items through the dishwasher before we use them 🙂
I have two wooden bowls on the coffee table which I keep filled with various found objects from nature like seedpods, stones, shells, coral etc. Makes a nice center piece too!
Great idea! Sounds wonderful, I’d love to see a pic.
Holly,
You all look like you’re having so much fun with projects and the little ones. I sure miss those day. Enjoy them.
Did you buy the rice coloured or make it? We dyed some in our kindergarten class and put it in our sensory bin and the kids loved it. I also made “I Spy” bottled from the leftovers… never thought to try it at home though!
I bought this batch as I wasn’t sure if it would be a hit or not but working on making some of my own now!