September Apple Themed Work

For September I put together a few apple themed practical life exercises and art projects.


This is an apple apron I sewed from this pattern in like 20 min. (thanks to some help ;) )
I plan on using it for red play dough spiked with lots of glitter and apple pie spice. Smells SOOOO good! make sure the kids know NOT to eat it :)
This would also be good for an apple cutting exercise.




















This is apple tweezing with learning chopsticks from Montessori Services. The apples are erasers from the teacher supply store. The tray they are transferred into is a paint palate. I had the litte crate leftover from a Melissa and Doug toy I bought for my kids. I thought it was perfect with the apples!




















This is another version of apple tweezing/transferring. I found the apples at the thrift store, I'm sure you can get them at any art supply place. They have little stems that stick out the top. They are perfectly tricky for grabbing with the toast tongs, which I also got from Montessori Services.




















This is a fun glue-ing activity. In most Montessori classes I have seen, the art projects are set up with a finished example and all the supplies. I haven't found the space to do that yet, so we do our art projects as a group.



















This is an apple tree I drew freehand and then made copies. The "apples" are label stickers from the office supply store.

Ball Shoot

This is what we did for an "opening activity" last week. I got this idea from Family Fun magazine. I bought three 8ft lengths of flexible air ducts and stuck one end through the railings in our deck. Then added 12 or so little white practice golf balls (the kind with holes in them.) The basket at the bottom was for gathering the balls and bringing them back to the top again.

What's on the Shelf

We have already been in session for 2 days, I wanted to show close-ups of our shelves all set up for the beginning of the year.

This is the Practical Life Shelf:
From Top Right to Bottom Left:
A sushi mat to help practice rolling up work mats. A change sorting activity. Cutting.

Apple Tweezing. Pouring colored rice. Opening containers and black felt mat to spread them out on.

Infant/Toddler "Works." Horizontal Post. Peg board. Three Circle puzzle.

There are two reasons I have a few Infant/Toddler works out. 1-My one year old will be joining us after the first week. 2-Kids (especially the younger ones) like to refine skills that they have long since mastered. It helps them validate old skills and move onto the next thing.

This is the Sensorial Shelf:

Color Boxes 1 & 2. Animal sorting puzzle with bag to reach into and find shapes. 2 of 4 Knobless Cylinders.

Color Paddles. Red Rods.

Pink Tower. 2 of 4 Knobbed Cylinders.

This is the Math Shelf:


Geometric Solids and Blindfold to guess which shape by touch. Really cool Tag counting, peg drop.

Tree with 10 "apple" stickers to fill up the tree. Spindles.

Red and Blue Rods. Sandpaper Numbers.


This is the Language shelf:

Metal insets for design (I have not added colored pencils yet.)

Sandpaper letters. (We are beginning with r a m and f.) Some Pre-Reading matching Puzzles.

Moveable Alphabet.


This is the Reading Corner:


Look back for changes as we move through the year!