Nesting dolls are a wonderful addition to a child's toy collection. My oldest daughter has used this nesting doll for a long time now and she still has interest in it. She delights in opening the last doll to find the "baby" inside. Recently, I added the two largest dolls to my youngest daughter's (19 months) activity shelf. 
She is able to open and put the dolls back together and is working on the "nesting" part of it.
The apples are placed (left to right) on the stickers using just the fingers.
The strawberry huller is used to pick up the apple by the stem and transfer it into the jar.
I used these to formally introduce the idea of mixing primary colors to make additional colors. It works well because it is self-contained, allows for experimentation without having everything turn brown, and looks so pretty in the window! After we have experimented with these for awhile we will try our hand with paint and then mixing small amounts of colored water using a dropper. While experimenting with the set-up I learned two things: it doesn't require a sunny day, just window light and the more diluted the colored water, the easier it was to see some colors.
Blue food coloring and yellow food coloring in water.
Placing one behind the other makes green.
Red food coloring and yellow food coloring in water.
Placing one behind the other, makes orange. (My red should have been darker though)
Blue food coloring and red food coloring in water.
Placing one behind the other makes purple.
Growing up, my mother often pressed leaves between the pages of books. In fact, it was rare if anyone opened a book in our house and a leaf did not fall out of it. Using the idea that I don't have to buy a flower press to press flowers and leaves, I recently made my own version with my daughter.
I started by cutting up 4 squares of equal size from a cardboard box. Next, I found old newspaper and folded it to the size of the cardboard. I used a couple layers so that the moisture of the plant would be absorbed by the newsprint. My daughter stretched 2 rubber bands over the squares to hold the newspaper in place. The rubber bands help make it more manageable for her especially if we are outside.
We placed the leaves and flowers on the newspaper and then put a another newspaper square on top of it.
After the leaves and flowers were put between the newspaper squares, we used two large rubber bands to hold it all together. We then placed a couple of heavy books on top.
After a week we carefully removed the plants. She glued the plants onto paper. I noticed she had even managed to press a dandelion. Although we didn't, I have read that bulky flowers can be carefully taken apart for pressing and after pressing can be put back together on paper (hmm, sounds like a good Montessori activity to me!)
We have done "Filling To A Line" before, first with solids and then with liquids using both pouring and scooping/spooning. I like the lesson because it is so practical and can be applied to many situations in everyday life. It is a useful skill for a child to learn. After being successful with the previous ones, I recently introduced this one.
Awhile ago I posted this food lesson for slicing apples. At the time, I also mentioned my daughter ate apples occasionally but they were not really one of her favorite fruits. I must say, since introducing the slicing apples activity, she eats apples all the time now! As an extension to this activity, I have now introduced grating cinnamon so that she can make her own cinnamon and sugar for putting on the apples instead of using the store bought.
After she has sliced the apples, she then uses the grater to prepare the cinnamon. It took some practice at first but she does well now.
She uses the measuring spoon (1/8 tsp.) and levels it (leveling was taught in an earlier lesson somewhere in this blog =) . She then stirs the cinnamon and sugar together.
She dips the apple into the mixture and enjoys the apples.
It was time for a new activity for my daughter's shelf. I put this together using a large spice container (with holes in the lid), the lacing beads, a dowel and a rock. The rock provides stability for the container so that it doesn't tip when she is using it. I pushed the dowel through one of the holes in the lid and since it is a tight fit it stays put. She has really taken an interest to it and it provides just the right challenge while developing eye-hand coordination.
Before now our rock collection had been a jar at the nature table. We still have the jar for larger rocks, but now we have started a collection for smaller rocks to compare, examine and study. The clean egg carton does a great job keeping it organized.
After collecting rocks outside on a few of our walks, we sorted through them to choose 12. The rocks were cleaned with an old toothbrush, soap and water.
After a good scrubbing, they were dried and put into the egg carton.
They can be compared by color, size, weight, and more. They can also be examined with the magnifying glass. Eventually we can sketch the rocks too. We also tested the rocks for hardness by using the scratch test. First, the rock is scratched with a fingernail, then a coin, and then a nail (ours is filed down to prevent injury). My daughter really likes the scratch test. The softest rock can be scratched by a fingernail and the hardest rocks can only be scratched by a nail or not at all.
I should start off by saying, during my internship I did have not have any lesson plans for introducing the solar system. I am not very familiar with the Montessori lesson itself. I can remember seeing the materials out while passing through a room when an older child worked on it. With that said, this is as best as I remember the set up (more or less).
I purchased this solar system from Montessori 'N Such. It is meant to be used as a mobile but for now, we are using it this way. Using paper on a roll, I drew a sun and each planet to match the mobile planets. The cards are just for reference as I discussed how the planets would look if we were closer to them in a space shuttle. My daughter matches the planets to the drawings, where each planet sits in bottle lid so it doesn't roll off the paper. I spent a while looking for a Solar system song. I wanted something simple with only the names of the planets. I didn't find one so we sing this to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb:
The mobile came with glow in the dark stars , moon, and planets. We put some on my daughter's ceiling of her bedroom and used the rest to make this looking box.
She opens the box, shines the flashlight on the stars, closes it and peeks through the hole.
Now that we have been using the solar system models we have started to have some fun with them. Using the picture of the space shuttle, we start at earth. We have a count up (instead of a count down to practice counting) and when we get to 10 the shuttle is blasted off into space. While my daughter moves the card as if it is flying through the solar system, I am "mission control" and tell her what planet to visit. I add comments like "Mars, the red planet" or "it is too cold in Pluto, time to go to..." She also likes to pick where the shuttle will go and makes comments too. We always return to earth for landing when we are finished.
The volcano is made of Crayola clay. The tray is from take out Sushi- we will have to go back because these are perfect for make your own land and water forms, too! I put a very small jar inside it to hold the baking soda and vinegar.
Materials needed are all on the tray. The child should be successful with pouring, spooning, leveling, using a funnel, using a dropper and clean-up routines.
The child pours a cup full of vinegar from the bottle.
The child takes a full teaspoon of baking soda and levels it with the utensil.
Using the funnel, the baking soda is put into the volcano.
The funnel is removed from the volcano. One full dropper at a time is added to the volcano which causes an eruption. My daughter also poured from the cup sometimes, which created a more dramatic eruption. The child uses the full cup of vinegar and once it is empty they are finished.
Some of the vocabulary I used was eruption, volcano and lava. It was a lot of fun for my daughter, and simple enough for her to use on her own whenever she wants to.
The child pours the erupted lava into the small bucket using the corner of the tray. Materials are wiped dry with the cloth.
I also put out some National Geographic pictures of volcanoes along with some real lava rocks and the magnifying glass.
