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Musically Montessori:#1 Let's Start the School Year with Lots of Music!

ARE YOU DREAMING OF A UNIQUE WAY TO START OFF YOUR NEW SCHOOL YEAR? Here's a lovely set of Montessori Practical Life Activities that are musically oriented!


All photos by Carolyn at Magical Movement Company


Your new school year is right around the corner and you are probably preparing lots of activities for your preschool classroom. If your group is a typical mix of children who are brand new to the school and "veterans" who have been enrolled for a few years (or months), you might dream of adding just a few unique activities for your shelves that are new and simple, yet engaging. 

Well, of course, I'm going to encourage lots of music for the children in the first days of school and why not enrich the environment with some "Musically Montessori" Practical Life shelf works for individualized activity. If you are new to Montessori, you can read about this wonderful area of curriculum called Practical Life at this link: Montessori Print Shop Practical Life Activities Overview.

An old stand-by in my Montessori classroom has been this simple scooping work for the Practical Life shelf that has jingle bells for the scooping material. Even the very youngest children will enjoy the sound of the bells as they are scooped. NOT for children under three who are still exploring objects with their mouths...the jingle bells can be a choking hazard & also catch a tiny tongue in the bell's opening, OWCH!

I start out with simple scooping using 2 bowls and one scoop...then I like to add 3 scoops that are measuring spoons and children can explore the differing quantities they are able to transfer with the different scoops. If you provide a variety of sizes of jingle bells, then you could add small, medium & large bowls for transferring and the children can enjoy a seriating experience as well! You can find a variety of jingle bells at Michaels Craft Supply any time of year.



The basic Practical Life Activity of pouring can be really fun for children if you introduce a musical theme. I purchased music-themed tall plastic cups, music note erasers and most of the music related materials you see in this post from a wonderful supply company: https://www.musicmotion.com.

You can see in the photos below that even a 4 yr old is enjoying the tall plastic music note transfer activity.






The children may move to the next challenge with this tray set up with ceramic (breakable!) music-themed mugs and music note pasta. (see supplier mentioned above)



A very popular music-themed Practical Life Activity is a water play experience. I purchased a music note ice tray from Amazon and then set up a tray with a child-size baster (Montessori Services) and a container of colored water. 

Later, you can extend this shelf work, by exchanging the baster with an eyedropper...quite challenging!

We all know that the play dough tray is chosen every day, and so I added cookie cutters that have a music theme. (music notes & musical instruments) You can find these on Amazon or at the Music in Motion site mentioned above.





For some fun music oriented Practical Life Activities with tongs, I set up music note erasers with tongs and cute little musical teapot shaped tea bag caddies. Here's the link: Music Treasures.com.


You can create a more challenging extension with this work by exchanging the larger tongs with small sized sugar tongs. I like the tong sets that are offered at Montessori Services. Here's that link: Montessori Services tongs.

Then, there are the children who love to explore tiny miniatures and so you can have a tray with a beautiful and inviting box to open and discover tiny music charms. I set this up on a tray with a piece of velvet fabric and tweezers.
A lovely work for the children who want a more sophisticated challenge. Tiny music charms can be found in many places, including the suppliers I have mentioned earlier in this post.


Don't forget the beautiful and subtle musical reminder on the table cloth for your children's snack table!


Here's a close up of the pattern on this Musically Montessori snack table cloth. I got the material at Jo-Ann's Fabrics.



Once again, I am so happy to have you visiting my site and I hope you got some useful ideas for your group. Please feel free to leave a comment in the section below...I love hearing about your ideas!



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