Sound Cylinders

Here is another Montessori inspired lesson called Sound Cylinders. The object of this lesson is to refine the auditory sense. This is my homemade version. Here's what you'll need:
*film canisters
*red and blue construction paper
*things that make different sounds like chick peas, rice, salt, bells, ect.

Most people don't have a bunch of empty film canisters laying around. I went to a place that develops film and asked them for their empty ones. They were happy to give them to me. Ask for at least 8. It's helpful if they're all the same but I didn't want to seem to picky so I just crossed my fingers. I only got one different color. I started off using 8. Cover 4 canisters with blue construction paper and 4 with red construction paper.


Next fill up one red and one blue canister of the same object.


Close the lids. Show your child how to sort the colors and put the reds on one side and the blues on the other in a line. Take one red and bring it up to your ear and shake it. Then choose one blue from the line and shake it. If it's not a match put it back in line. If it is a match put them together to the side. Continue this until they've found all the matches.


After they've mastered those, you can add more sounds. Another activity is lining them up loudest to softest or guessing what's in the container.

Smelling Bottles

I got this idea from Montessori. They have an activity called smelling bottles. You can either have the bottles and match them to control cards or you can have 2 sets of bottles. With 2 sets of bottles you have the option of blindfolding your child and see if they can find the scents that smell the same. Here's what you need:
*empty baby food jars, washed
*hammer and a nail
*cotton balls
*miscellaneous extracts (cherry, mint, lemon, banana, cinnamon, orange, ect.)
*stock card

Put the lids on the baby food jars and hammer 5 or so holes in the top.


Then take the lids back off. Next get your cotton balls and put a few drops of extract on each cotton ball and put these in the jar. I just #3 baby food jars and they were a little too big so I used 3 cotton balls in each. Put the lids back on tightly so your child can't get them off. Then you can either print out a picture of the fruit or whatever scent matches the bottles or draw them on card stock. I wrote the word on them too. I would suggest laminating these. You might need to go through them and let your child smell the bottles and tell them what is in it. Since they might not know what coconut or root beer smells like. I have found at least 10 different scents. You could experiment with other things in the bottle like dirt or something other than food extracts. I would suggest covering the bottles with black paper. My daughter automatically sees what color is on the cotton ball and knows which card it goes with. You want them to use their sense of smell.

10 Little Bunnies

With Easter approaching, we've been doing all sorts of related crafts, songs, baking and planting. There are so many songs and rhymes that your toddler and preschooler will enjoy. I'll share a couple of my favorites.

To the tune of 10 Little Indians:
Do the actions as you sing
1 little, 2 little, 3 little bunnies,
4 little, 5 little, 6 little bunnies,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little bunnies,
10 little bunnies hopping up and down.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little bunnies,
4 little, 5 little, 6 little bunnies,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little bunnies,
10 little bunnies jumping up and down.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little bunnies,
4 little, 5 little, 6 little bunnies,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little bunnies,
10 little bunnies twirling around.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little bunnies,
4 little, 5 little, 6 little bunnies,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little bunnies,
10 little bunnies hopping on one foot.


A Rabbit

Preschool children act out this rhyme
Can you make a rabbit
With two ears, so very long
hold up fingers
And let him hop, hop, hop about
hop
On legs so small and strong?
He nibbles, nibbles carrots
act out
For his dinner every day;
As soon as he has had enough
He scampers fast away!
hop on all fours