How to Use Montessori to Develop Fine-Motor Skills

One of Dr. Maria Montessori's revolutionary ideas in the field of education was the "Practical Life" section of her classroom. In this area, children are welcome to practice everyday skills that work on fine-motor skills, eye-hand coordination and the concept of working from left to right. Lucky for us, most of these projects can easily be replicated at home.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Item to polish
• Spray bottle
• Polish
• Rag
• Nuts and bolts
• Locks and keys
• Buckles
• Pompoms
• Bowls
• Tongs
• Tweezers
• Beads
• Rice
• Turkey baster
• Water
• Cups
• Teaspoon
• Small pasta
• Ice cube tray

1. Model each activity for your child and then have her repeat it. If she did not understand the first time, simply offer to show her again. Once she seems to have the idea, leave her to it. Each activity should be made available so that the child can go back and practice each fine-motor skill to build confidence.

2. Practice polishing. A simple activity to start with is to put out a few items that can be polished, a small spray bottle of diluted polish and a rag. Take the item in your hand, demonstrate a responsible amount of polish to spray, and polish the item using small circles.

3. Set up a tray that has nuts and bolts, locks and keys, or buckles. Practicing these skills allows a child to line up two objects and manipulate them to put them together. It also offers instant feedback to the child, such as the lock opens when the key is inserted and turned.

4. Work on the pincer grip by first setting up a bowl on the left with large objects in it such as pompoms and an empty bowl on the right. The child uses tongs to move each item one by one from the full bowl to them empty one and then back again.

5. Continue to work on the pincer grip by making the item to be moved smaller as well as the tweezers more narrow. An easy progression is sugar cube tongs to move beads and then regular tweezers to move smaller beads or grains of rice.

6. Introduce a turkey baster and two cups. Fill the cup on the left with water and food coloring, while the one on the right is empty. The child will use the syringe to move the water from left to right.

7. Recognize that activities in step 4, 5, and 6 all relate directly to the same fine-motor skills required for holding a pencil and writing in future activities.

8. Offer the child a teaspoon and a bowl of small pastas. Have her place one piece of pasta into each cube of an empty ice cube tray.

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on 6/23/2009 Wow this is great! I do numbers 2 and 6 with my kids all the time. Here I was thinking that I made those activities up myself:)
A similar thing I like to do is to take some empty jars and draw some lines on them with a permanent marker. I put my kids in the tub with the containers so that they can practice pouring just enough liquid from one container to the other to make it up to the line.
Thanks so much for this post.