Learning Areas

Fine Motor Skills

Digging 

Digging activities provide children with the experience of digging. Children can dig things such as soil and sand.

Digging Activities

Filling

Filling activities involve children in the task of filling containers, buckets, and other items with things such as water or sand.

Filling Activities

Gliding

Gliding activities allow children to guide an object along a path or track.

Gliding Activities

Grasping

Grasping is a fine motor skill. It involves the movement and use of the hands and upper extremities. Grasping is simply how children pick up and hold onto objects.

Grasping Activities

Hand Eye Coordination

Hand-eye coordination is important in Montessori environments. Activities such as knobbed cylinders and pouring exercises help children refine their ability to manipulate objects with precision.

Hand-Eye Coordination Activities

Locking

Locking activities for children may be in the form of lock and key toys or lock and latch toys. Locking activities keep children engaged while helping them develop fine motor skills. 

Locking Activities

Pouring

Pouring is a practical life activity. It develops the movements needed to pour objects from one vessel to another without spilling. Commonly, it involves water, but it can also be dry items.

Pouring Activities

Scooping

A scooping activity is the concept of using a spoon or scoop to pick things up, tip them, and pour out the contents inside.

Scooping Activities

Screwing

Children learn how to screw a nut onto a bolt correctly through Montessori nut-to-bolt activities. The nuts and bolts are usually made of metal or wood and are big and chunky for kids to easily use. 

Screwing Activities

Shaking

Shaking activities for children involve using their hands to shake things. They can shake toys, rattles, sensory bottles, parachutes, or pom-poms. Children love the fun sounds and movements.

Shaking Activities

Sifting

Sifting activities use tools like sifters or sieves to separate materials such as sand, flour, or rice. Children can sift sand, separate rice from lentils, or sift flour to pretend to bake cakes.

Sifting Activities

Spinning

Spinning activities are when children play with toys that spin, like tops or spinning wheels. They make the toys spin by pushing or turning them. It helps explore sensory stimulation.

Spinning Activities

Switching

For little ones, switching activities mean they get to play with stuff that turns on, off, or changes. Think flipping lights, pressing toy buttons, or playing with simple switches on toys.

Switching Activities

threading

Threading requires a child to thread the first bead onto the string. After pulling it all the way to the knotted end, they begin again with the next bead. And so on, until all the beads are on the string. 

Threading Activities

tonging

Tonging is a Montessori practical life activity where a child learns how to hold a tong, pick an object, and transfer it into another bowl.

Tonging Activities

Tracing

Tracing is an important pre-writing activity in the early years. Children can start with big shapes, work through tracing patterns, and finally trace letters and numbers.

Tracing Activities

Transferring

Transferring activities are activities where the child is moving objects from one container to another. Most commonly, children transfer small objects like pom-poms, balls, marbles, or water.

Transferring Activities

Tweezing

Tweezing activities are activities that encourage children to use tweezers to move items from one place to another.

Tweezing Activities

Whisking

Whisking activities involve children in using a whisk to mix ingredients. Whisking activities are typically a part of baking or cooking.

Whisking Activities

Fine motor skills activities are the activities that use small muscles in our hands and wrists. Children use these skills to perform many important tasks such as writing or drawing. 

Fine Motor Skills Activities

Products

Materials

Bank Games

Montessori Bank Game is an activity where a child is given a number using the wooden number cards and then goes to the "bank" to get the corresponding golden bead material.

Beads

In Montessori education, beads are to teach children math, especially in counting, and learn hundreds and thousands. Beads can also aid in completing addition, subtraction, or multiplication. 

Bells 

Montessori Bells are materials that consist of 2 sets; a working and a control set. There are 13 bells for each set. The bells start in the middle C and go up to form a full octave. 

Bells

Boards

Many Montessori materials are boards; from sensorial touch boards to different math manipulatives. They are designed to engage the senses while building a sequential approach to learning. 

Bottles

Bottles are also used in Montessori as learning materials. They are especially used to provide sensory lessons for children.

Boxes

There are many Montessori materials that use boxes. Some of the popular ones are imbucare boxes. Children can insert coins, balls, or other objects through the box’s slot or hole.

Brown Stairs

The brown stairs or broad stairs are a sensorial material to develop the child's awareness of size differences and is introduced in the primary years. It's a set of ten wooden brown blocks and square prisms.

Cabinets

Montessori cabinets consist of different shapes of leaves and geometry. It allows children to learn that there are many shapes in nature and math.

Cards

Card is one of the famous materials used in Montessori learning used to let a child learn about different subjects in a fun way. Flashcards, land form cards, and 3-part cards are some of examples. 

Charts

Charts are visual tools used to learn math. Charts have images to help children understand the concepts easily.

Circles, Squares, and Triangles

Circles, squares, and triangles are a set of basic geometric shapes in three colors, red, yellow, and blue. The shapes come in various sizes.

Creative Plays

Creative plays are materials and activities that encourage children to explore their creativity. 

Cubes

Montessori has two popular cubes that children love to tinker with, the binomial and the trinomial cubes. The cubes consist of 8 wooden blocks that kids need to assemble to be able to fit in a box. 

Cylinders

Cylinders are sensorial materials that are shaped like cylinders. Some examples of cylinder materials include knobless cylinders and pressure cylinders.

Discs

Montessori discs are simple round tools made of wood, sometimes with a dowel. They come in different sizes, colors, and textures for children to explore and compare. 

Dressing Frames

Dressing frames are materials for Montessori practical life. The aim is to help children learn to dress themselves. They are important materials to help children do self-care 

Fraction Circles

Fraction circles are made to help children learn about fractions and basic math. They're divided into equal parts, showing fractions of a whole.

Geometric Solids

Globes

Globes are Montessori geography materials. The globes have different colors and textures for land and sea. Children will learn through touches.  

Grammar Symbols

Grammar symbols are symbols that are used to represent parts of speech in grammar. Grammar symbols include the 3d wooden grammar symbols set with tray, basic wooden grammar symbols with box, and noun and verb solids.

Kitchenware

Montessori-aligned kitchenware includes cooking tools made for children to learn to cook. These utensils are made smaller and safer for children to use, so they can cook with confidence. 

Magnets

Magnets are items that pull or push other magnetic objects. Magnets can be found in puzzles, building blocks, and many more items.

Maps

Montessori maps are one of the tools to expose children to the world they live in. Geography itself is one of the subjects in the Montessori cultural subject.

Movable Alphabets

Movable alphabets consist of 1 or 2 wooden boxes with 26 compartments. Inside the compartments are letters, consonants in pink, and vowels in blue. This material is for learning to read and write. 

Pink Towers

Pink towers are 10 wooden cubes in pink, each of the cubes is different in size, from 1 cubic centimeter to 10 cubic centimeters. Since the cubes are pink, hence the name pink towers. 

Place Value Working Mat

Place value working mats are mats that are designed to help children understand the concept of place value.  They are typically divided into four colors, each representing a different place value.

Rods

Rods are one of Montessori's sensorial materials. There are numbers and long red rods that help children learn to count. Each rod has a different length, each is 10 cm longer than the previous one.

Sandpaper Letters

Sandpaper letters are cards containing letters on sandpaper. Vowels are blue and consonants are pink. Children use this to trace letters and it helps to prepare them for writing and reading. 

Sets

Sets are collections of hands-on materials that are designed to develop and enhance skills. Some examples of sets are pouring sets and transferring sets. 

Table of Pythagoras

The table of pythagoras is a set of squares and rectangles that are color-coded and need to be arranged to complete the square of a decanomial.

Tablets

Tablets are a set of sensorial materials that are shaped like a tablet. Some examples of tablets are baric tables, color tablets. and thermic tablets.

Tools

Tools are a variety of items that can be used for different purposes. Tools include brooms, wheelbarrows, shovels, and more.

Trays

Trays are important items in a Montessori environment that children learn how to carry a tray early on. Trays are used to display material and are organized on a shelf for easy access. 

Treasure Baskets

Treasure baskets are baskets that are filled with various objects for children to discover and explore.

Triangles

Triangles are Montessori sensorial materials. There are several triangles, including Constructive Triangles. The triangles are used to create different shapes.

Montessori materials are learning tools to encourage children to master a skill on their own. Children can learn on their own through repetition and practice. 

Montessori Fine Motor Skills Materials

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