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?