Do-it-yourself Montessori material. Montessori materials

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Maria Montessori introduced into the everyday life of teachers and psychologists the concept of a prepared environment, where the development of the child occurs due to his interaction with various objects, the purpose of which is to improve certain cognitive functions of the baby. An adult in this process acts as an assistant and ensures the changeability of didactic materials surrounded by crumbs. The child himself decides what he will do and what subject he will choose at the moment.

Since new and new objects are constantly required, and the cost of ready-made educational toys is very high, many educators and parents prefer to make Montessori material with their own hands, using everything that is in the house: fabrics, buttons, cereals, cardboard, etc. e.

What every mom can do?

The main requirement for each component of future toys is its natural origin, purity and safety for a small child.

How to make Montessori materials with your own hands? Discussioninventive adults of concrete items that you can create on your own, led to a list of the most accessible, simple and useful educational toys. So, here is the TOP 7.

In-frame frames

Insert frames are the most popular Montessori didactic material. With their own hands they are most often made of cardboard. Frames-inserts are multifunctional - with their help, the child simultaneously studies colors, shapes, sizes and learns to compare them. Making such a toy begins with cutting a large sheet of cardboard or several shoe boxes into equal squares. After that, they are pasted over with colored paper and carefully cut out from the center of the figure with a clerical knife: circles, squares, triangles, trapezoids, rhombuses, etc. of different sizes.

Further, inserts of a contrasting shade are made in the same way, in the center of which a button or other device is placed for easy grip by children's fingers. The edges of the cardboard elements are cleaned with fine sandpaper so that they fit into each other more easily.

Geometric

Geometric is a wonderful little thing, playing with which a child is ready to spend more than one hour. In the original, it consists of a board and pins. When creating similar Montessori material with your own hands, instead of wooden chopsticks, you can use pushpins with heads of different shades. It is necessary to drive them into the board with a hammer so that the young naturalist cannot pull the points out of the base. On the wide plastic parts of the baby buttonscatches rubber bands (those that are designed for fastening bills by bank employees and have different colors are suitable), forming lines, shapes and whole pictures.

Sensory mat

The fabric rug will become your baby's favorite pastime, because it's so great to sit on it, lie down, arrange toys, and it also contains a lot of surprises. This didactic material for the implementation of the Montessori methodology can be made really from anything. The only thing that limits you is your own imagination. Size, color, drawings, developing elements such as buttons, zippers, hooks, pockets can be absolutely anything. For sewing such a rug, everything that lay in the wardrobe in anticipation of better times is suitable: fabric cuts, old clothes, accessories, etc.

The main thing is that the details have a different texture: elements of cotton and wool alternate, smooth and rough, sewn and knitted. Under the applique, you can hide a rustling plastic bag, a squeaker, a handful of cereals or beads.

Color Trainer

Any object will serve as a simulator for studying colors - from wooden cups, plastic boxes of a certain shade to circles or figures made of cardboard. The easiest way to make a tool for selection is clothespins. They can be either plastic, of a certain color, or wooden with paper stickers. Stickers in their color should also repeat the figure (capacity).

The child trains at the same timevision, mental functions and fine motor skills, finding the right place for each clothespin. This is another case where do-it-yourself Montessori materials are in no way inferior to store-bought ones.

Lacing board

Despite its name, a lacing board is not necessarily a piece of wood. If it is not possible to cut a plywood figurine, then a piece made of thick cardboard will do. For durability, it is better to glue it with a film. Holes are knocked out in the workpiece with a sharp tool, into which the child can easily stretch the lace.

The board can have any shape - from close to reality (for example, shoes) to fairy-tale castles, animals or vehicles. It is better to take ready-made laces, their ends are convenient for inserting into holes.

Snake

Sensory snake, or caterpillar, is also a Montessori material. You can make such a toy with your own hands in a few hours. All you need is pieces of various fabrics and material to fill the balloons. Suitable cereals (millet, beans, rice, peas, etc.), foam rubber or batting, crumpled paper or plastic wrap. You can think of other fillers that are interesting to the touch.

The easiest option is to make snake elements from old, lost their pair of children's socks. They have bright colors and patterns, and the assembly of the toy will look very interesting.

Those who know how can sew balls from fabrics of different textures, and decorate the head with eyes and a smile.

Soft pyramid

The pyramid consists of fleece or felt pads of different sizes. They are connected to each other with Velcro.

Despite the seeming simplicity, this is also the real educational Montessori material. Any owner of a sewing machine can easily sew such a pyramid with his own hands.

The main trick of the toy is that the pads have a different coloring of the lower and upper sides. Colors match only for parts that are connected to each other. It is not difficult to cut out squares, sew them together and fill them with soft filler. Velcro tape is divided into segments that are attached to the center of each part. The bottom pillow for the stability of the pyramid can be filled with something heavy, such as buckwheat or pearl barley.

Having learned how to make Montessori manuals with their own hands at home, parents can significantly expand the range of their baby's educational toys. And even if a child cannot use some of these didactic materials correctly, by manipulating with them he still learns, learns the properties of objects, compares weights and textures, colors and sizes and creates a base in his head for further learning.

The task of an adult in this process is to provide that very “prepared environment”, which means constantly replenishing the collection of Montessori manuals, following the preferences of the young researcher and giving the baby time to comprehend those logical connections that already seem natural to us. The technique implies the maximum independence of children in the choicethe sequence of classes, the subject and the way of interaction with it. It is important for parents to understand that this approach to early learning is the most reasonable and natural. In addition, such an attitude of elders instills in the child faith in himself, and this positively affects his entire future life.