Our Toddler Montessori Shelves

Little Bee is 16 months old.  We are working on colors, shapes, stacking, and matching activities.  Displayed here are several color matching and shape sorting activities we worked on over the last couple of weeks.  For more information about how we incorporated the study of the color RED into our learning activities visit here.The wooden shapes above are actually a part of a clown shape stacking puzzle that I found at a consignment shop.  I simplified it and only had Little Bee working on four pieces.  When Little Bee is older and developmentally ready, we will start learning how to build this fun clown structure in its entirety!  Little Bee loved this color sorting activity that I made out of a plastic stacker found here on Amazon and matching colored pom-poms.  It was fun to poke the pom-poms through the holes at the top of each sphere. This sorting activity was not actually displayed on our shelves, but I added it into our week for learning colors. We had fun sorting pom-poms and also different colored socks.  The sorting of socks was Little Bee's idea!Little Bee and I had fun stacking this tall tower found at a local consignment shop.  Little Bee was able to stack one or two boxes, but he mostly LOVED toppling the tower over.  It was a game to see if Mommy could build the tower faster than Little Bee could knock it down!  Next on our shelves is an animal matching and association activity.  Many would argue that stuffed animals and plastic toys are not authentically Montessori materials. And perhaps that is true... However, I am new to the Montessori methods and choose to use what is available in my home to help teach basic concepts of sorting, matching, colors, and shapes to my toddler.  Below, we have matched his stuffed animals to flashcards.  We had fun naming the animal, talking about the color of the animal, making the American Sign Language sign for the animal, and also making the sound of each animal.  I vocalize a "munch-munch" sound for the giraffe, as if he is eating leaves from a tall tree.  This is a super fun activity that Little Bee really enjoys!  In this picture we are matching up small and "real-to-life" appearing plastic animal figures to Little Bee's flashcards.  I found all of these materials at a local consignment shop.  Several of the little plastic animals can be found at "Hobby Lobby." Little Bee is a bit tired after all these fun learning activities with Mommy!  Thanks for visiting and if you found this information inspiring or have a question please leave a comment below!  I love to read your comments.  🙂  You can also visit, "Busy Bee Montessori" for a little more information about me and how we Montessoi.  🙂  I thought this last picture of Little Bee was fitting as our good-bye photo!  The End!  🙂