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You are here: Home / Holidays / 8 Montessori Inspired Valentine Trays

8 Montessori Inspired Valentine Trays

February 6, 2015 by Vanessa 1 Comment

Last week I got excited about putting activities together using red, purple, and pink with lots of hearts! Well… Valentine’s Day IS right around the corner! I hope you will enjoy these 8 Montessori Inspired Valentine Trays as much as Little Bee and I did. 🙂
Enjoy last minute Montessori inspired Valentine activities for your child with these beautiful tray presentations and free printables. - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

1. Valentine Pompom Transfer and Match Up

Montessori education encourages the development of the hand in order to properly develop the brain. This beautiful Valentine transfer activity helps to develop a child’s fine motor hand movements. The child implements the use of the tweezers to transfer a pompom to the dot on the printable. Please find this gorgeous free Valentine Do-a-Dot Printable on the Gift of Curiosity blog.

CMN Pompom Transfer

2. Practical Life Threading with Straws

Below you will find three tray set-ups for varying degrees of threading challenge accomplished by my two year old child. Little Bee has practiced threading ever since he turned one year old using a straw and large wooden beads. He has also mastered threading a pipe-cleaner into a large “holed” straw. Visit – Montessori Toddler Study of Yellow, for threading activities for a one year old. In the trays below, I cut several straws into one inch pieces for threading and also to encourage color patterning.

Little Bee started by threading the straw pieces onto a pipe-cleaner. Once he mastered that, he moved on to threading the straw pieces onto a thick string. In the last tray, I set up a couple popsicle sticks in an upright position for Little Bee to practice threading from a different perspective. I glued a felt heart onto the smaller popsicle stick, which enabled the stick to stand up. With the larger popsicle stick, I made a ball of play-dough and stuck the stick into it. Little Bee practiced placing a red piece and then a pink piece in an alternating pattern on the sticks.

Practical Life Threading with Straws - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

Threading with Straws - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

3. Creating Shapes with Play-dough

Little Bee and I always enjoy a bit of fun when learning shapes. I helped Little Bee with these shapes by rolling the play-dough into long cylinders and then helping him match the shapes on these awesome Valentine Play-dough Mats printables by the Gift of Curiosity blog.

Creative Play with Shapes - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

4. 1 Corinthians 13 Scripture Matching Memory Game

These fun Biblical printables, for the famous love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, can be found in this Tot Pack on Love. I cut out each of the individual hearts and then traced them into a flower shaped pattern. There are a total of 15 hearts, so I created 3 flowers. I then numbered the flowers to match the hearts. That way a young child can match up the numbers on the back of the heart with the numbers on the flowers and begin to become familiar with the order of the love chapter. An older child could try to match up the hearts to the flowers by reading each heart and correctly putting the hearts in order. The child could check their memory by looking at the back of the heart for the matching number.

1 Corinthians 13 - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

5. Lovestruck Number Counting and Match Up

These number printables are great for learning with their bright colors and easy to read number patterns. I added the “Lovestruck” clothes pins to the mix for a fun Valentine flare.  Find these “Teach Kids Numbers Free Printable” on the Tips from a Typical Mom Blog.

Lovestruck Number Counting - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

6. Heart Shape Recognition and Matching Game

Here is another great match up game using red and white color tones and shape recognition for matching. At first, the tray can be presented with one to three heart shaped pairs. As the child masters the first sets of shapes, then add another pair to the mix until all 6 pairs are added. These heart shape pairs can be found in this free Tot Pack ~ Love printable.

Heart Match - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

7. Counting Play-dough Trays

These trays, with free Valentine Play-dough Mats, make number recognition fun! The child can shape the numbers out of play-dough or add number puzzle pieces (like I did.)  Any small round object can be used for the counting part – beans, pompoms, play-dough, or heart candies.

Montessori Inspired Counting - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

8. Valentine Sensory Treasure Bowl

After all our tray work was completed, I tossed all our Valentine decorations into a sensory treasure bowl for Little Bee to explore. I used white beans with silver glitter as the filler. I enjoy making him a treasure bowl for each holiday.

Please visit our other sensory treasure bowls –

Autumn Sensory Play

10 Christmas Montessori Inspired Tot Trays

Valentine Sensory Treasure Bowl - ChristianMontessoriNetwork.com

Filed Under: Holidays, Preschool (3-6 years), Toddler (1-3 years) Tagged With: Montessori Inspired Trays, Valentine

About Vanessa

Vanessa has a Pediatric nursing background and currently works as a Lactation Consultant, although her full-time job is a stay-at-home mama to her very active and adorable toddler. Vanessa enjoys discovering and learning the beauty of Montessori education with her tot. She writes and shares her life story in a weekly picture journal as well as sharing her creative DIY Montessori activities on her blog, “Mama’s Happy Hive.” She finds this learning journey to be one of the most delightful journeys she has ever taken and looks forward to the years of continued discovery with her little one as he grows up.

Comments

  1. The Natural Homeschool says

    February 10, 2015 at 12:52 am

    What a fun round-up of activities! 🙂

    Reply

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