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Montessori, Waldorf and Reggio Emilia Activities for 3-4-5 Years Old

Though, I will divide the activities into two, namely: 3-4 and 4-5, there is not a sharp difference between the ages. What I mean by this is, sometimes you can do the activity for 3, with your kid age of 5, or vice versa. And some activities are suitable both for Montessori and Waldorf Philosopy. So, do not stick to a part of the page and keep reading :)


Montessori Activities for 3-4 Years Old

Here is the activities you can do in this period:

  • You can continue with transferring activities. You should focus on more fine motor skills development any more because she is in preschool stage now. In this activity, we transferred by a dropper. But we wanted to reach a goal in the end, so we used cotton and paint. You can make any shape with cotton pants and dye them via dropping colorful water. We made a flower in this way:

                                      


  • You can play with puzzles. You can buy or you can make your own puzzle as well. In the link below, we made our own puzzle by just cutting a picture into pieces and sticking them on sticks. You can do this since your kid is 2 years old and you can increase or decrease the number of pieces according to her age level.
                                  


  • The next one is an activity that develops your kids' problem solving abilities. Cut four pieces of arrows in the same size. You can do that with colorful papers but I wanted my daughter to paint them. Stick them in different positions. Draw different types of paths. 
  • This is one of my favourites: It improves the sense of hearing. Take some objects made of different materials and close your daughters' eyes. Knock the objects and ask her what the material is, such as metal, glass, wood, etc. 

  • You can make rainbow bubbles. It is so simple. Cut a plastic bottle in two pieces. Place a net at the bottom. Prepare some colorful water with dish soap and some fingerpaint or acrylic. Dip the net in that water at blow through it  gently. You will obtain colorful bubbles! Moreover, your kid will be surprised when she gets so big bubbles! You can lay some papers on the table and let the bubbles fall down those paper to create a colorful view. 

                                      


                                     


  • A way of developing fine motor skills is the next activity.We played much with these lego. They can be classified by colors and shapes. Moreover, you can create different patterns for each time, which develops mathematical thinking. And also, one can create lots of imaginative designs by adding them each other. For instance my daugher and I made a house and a garden and then, sat in that "garden". 






  • You can play a memory game with your kid. Choose some objects around, set them on the table. Make your child have a look at them. Later, want her to close her eyes and hide one object. Now, ask her which object is missing when she opens her eyes. This  is related with both attention and memory.




  • The picture is our Christmas tree :) We gathered pine cones, painted and glued them together inthe pattern of a cone. The result was marvellous.



The above are just a few examples of what we have done so far. You can see the rest in our youtube channel.


If you think that these activities are beneficial, please subscribe, open alert, like, comment and share on our youtube channel. I am so demanded :)


Montessori Activities for 4-5 Years Old

First of all, though the conversations is not in English, still you can understand the main idea and how we do the activities. So, just keep watching :)

And also, my daugher is 5 years old for just a few months. So, we continue doing activities and add new videos. So, it is better if you check our youtube channel regularly.

  • There is a lot to do with this age group. First of all, improvement of daily life skills is important for Montessori philosopy. In these years, you can include your kids in daily life routines more. She can help preparing ingredients of meals and cakes, extracts beans, cleans the floor, etc. 

  • Salty dough is our favorite material. You can use it since she is 2,5 years old. It improves imagination greatly. Is is so easy to prepare. And when you cook it becomes just like a stone so you can save the shape you created and also, can paint easily whatever color you want. You can do anything with this dough. We made a cartoon hero with it and created a view table. I give the link for you below:
                                      


  • In order to improve fine motor skills you can create shapes using pipes and thread. Also, you can make different shapes and create a collage with them. You can do this activity when she is 3 years old.
                                  

  • Your child has imaginary friends and plays in these years. You can make a toy that is very suitable to this case: a puppet! 

  • By using plastic needle you can create Montessori needle crafts. We made a butterfly with it. And then painted it. You can do it since 3 years old.

  • Since 3 years old, kids like moving around. You can play games requiring some movement. In the next activity, we made a path with lego and tried to walk on them in balance.

  • We made some patterns with lego also. There is a lot to do with lego!

  • In these years, you should lay a foundation of scientific thinking so should do experiments often. Color mix experiment is one of the most popular, most exciting and easiest.
             


  • In addition, the candle and oxygen experiment is a really easy one. Just need a candle and a jar. The child will observe that the candle does not continue burning when the oxygen finishes. And also, this shows that anywhere, even inside of the jar, is filled of air and the air consists of oxygen.
                             

  • One more interesting and soooo easy experiment: The candy experiment. Just align the candies of different colors circular and add a little amount of water slowly. Then wait. You will observe the colors leaving the candies and seem as rainbow. The view will excite your kid so much!
                               

  • If you are looking for a creative craft idea,  this is for you: A paper dough craft. It is a great recyling project of used papers and newspapers. You need to divide it into small pieces and lay them in an amount of water for 2-3hours to get soft. Then add flour and mix them to make a dough. Now, you have a dough that can be used for any shape. We made a little box. Laid it under sunshine till it gets dry. And lastly, we dyed our new box.
                               

These are just a few of what we have done so far. If you are curious about the rest, please visit our youtube channel.


If you think these activities are beneficial, please subscribe, open alert, like, comment, share on our youtube channel. I am so demanded :)



Waldorf and Reggio Emilia Activities for Kids

For a long time, I have been investigating modern educational approaches other than Montessori education. And I liked waldorf and reggio emilia approaches in some aspects. And also, I think it is not true to stick to just one approach, I believe in the benefit of using activities possessing different perspectives. I also searched for scientific literature that compares the similarities and differences between the three. In the link below, you will find a summary of this. I used an essay written by Barbara Shell:


  • Waldorf education starts at three years old. Painting, singing, story telling and gardening activities are included. One of our waldorf activities is making a doll. A homemade doll - especially ones that has no face- is important for imagination. All you need is an old t- shirt and some stuff to fill in. 
                                          





  • In addition, we made a horse using felt. It was a nice and exciting having a toy in the end.
                               


  • Then, we made a dress for our homemade doll.

  • In Waldorf education, nature and gardening plays an important role. Planting, riding a horse, climbing a tree are some of them we do in general. In the link below, we found a walnut tree, climbed to the tree, collected and peeled walnuts. It was the first for me also.
                  
                                     

                 


  • Lastly, we fed many caterpillars in our home. After a while, they spinned and my daughter watched them day by day. We observed the life cycle of a butterfly. This was the first time for me again that I have seen a catterpillar, spinning and becoming a butterfly. I always learn more with my daughter :) In my opinion, each child should experience such a life cycle. I shared these in three parts. If you want to see the process, you visit and watch on our youtube channel.
                    

  • And also, using materials from nature - e.g. branches,shells, leaves, peels, etc. - in our activities is another focus on Waldorf. In the picture below, we made ships by just peeling an orange and using toothpick. The result was really marvellous. Steps are again on our youtube page. Then, we colored an amount of water in blue, blowed them through straws and has a race :) This game remained for several days in the middle of our living room!
                                           

The above are just a few examples of what we have done so far. You can find the rest in our youtube channel.


If you think that these videos are beneficial, please subscribe, open allert, like, comment and share on our youtube channel. I am so demanded :)

  • I have collected our lots of Reggio Emilia activities in the video below. You will find more than six activities in it. We had took a walk in a jungle and filled our bags with a lot of natural materials. When we are back, we could still work with materials completely taken from nature at home also. And, we have created several collages and sensory bins by re-using the same material again and again. We made a rabbit, a tiger, a man, a fish, a tree, and so on... Just by using stones, branches and leaves. And also, in Reggio Emilia approach, it is important to drawing a picture of what the child have seen or remember, so far, in order to solidate the learning  and enhance expressing themselves in any way of 101 ways. The childisfree to choose the way of expressing her memories and feelings, i.e. it can be either painting or working with clay, painting with water color or finger paint... It does not matter actually. And one last important note is, the adult should take notes according to the information given by the child. But while doing this, s/he does take notes on a transparent sheet, in order to keep the oriiginal work of the kid. The information and meaning given to the items in the picture has vital  importance in observing the development of the children. Below, you will find some examples from our archive:








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