Monday, October 29, 2012

Montessori Monday - Visual Discrimination with Cans


One of the activities I set up for my girls (3 years old) last week was to sort various cylinder-shaped containers and cans from our pantry.  The challenge in this exercise lies in the fact that the containers vary in two different dimensions - height and base diameter, so they can actually be sorted in two different ways.  The kids had to focus on a single dimension to make their comparisons.




They did an excellent job, but sorting by height was definitely easier for them than sorting by base diameter (sorry - didn't get pictures of that one).  I showed them how to look down on the containers instead of from the side (which is also good practice for learning maps/topography).  I've found that my kids seem to get more excited about 'playing' with household items than toys.

They asked to stack the cans and containers, but I was a little worried about cans denting when they fall on the floor, so I gave them some different food containers to stack:

 

A morning of Montessori-inspired fun and learning with items from our pantry...




7 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun activity!

    Hi! Stopping by from MBC. Great blog!
    Have a nice day!

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  2. What a cute idea!

    I"m your newest visitor from the Monday Mingle
    followme@ www.studentswife.com

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  3. I love the simplicity of this ... yet great for a number of skills! Thanks for linking up with Montessori Monday. I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

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  4. What a great and simple learning activity. I would love for you to link this, and some of your other amazing ideas, to my weekly Mom's Library Link-Up.
    http://heymommychocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/10/moms-library-link-up-3-for-me.html

    Thanks and be blessed,
    Julie

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  5. May I use this on my ABC series of Thrifty Teaching tools? under M for Montessori? Here is my email: susancasetexas@gmail.com. Thank you!

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  6. What I meant to ask is link it to this page under the photo?

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  7. Hello, there are so many good ideas. I am a teacher from Slovakia, I have a blog with worksheets for visual perceptual skills. Visual discrimination is really important in reading and writing,

    http://visualperceptionworksheet.blogspot.sk/

    Eva Toth

    ReplyDelete

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