For the 12 Months of Montessori series this month, we are studying history. With Montessori education, the place to start teaching history is with a calendar. First, the child will begin to understand the concept of "passing of time" in his own life. Then, he can move on to learning about stories of other people's lives that happened in the past. The more hands-on "history" activities are for kids, the easier it is for them to grasp the concept of time. I put together several activities in this Montessori calendar for kids unit that will help a child understand time in a concrete way.

Also, there is an amazing Montessori giveaway at the end of this post. Don't miss out on this opportunity to win a $150 gift card to "Montessori Services" and also an art tool-kit from "Montessori by Mom."

Heirloom Montessori Inspired Calendar

We received this calendar last week as a custom made gift for Little Bee from the Etsy shop called, "From Jennifer." We haven't had a lot of time to use it yet, but so far we love it! This wooden calendar is a beautiful piece of artwork with hand-painted coins for the seasons and the weather. The wooden month name piece has gorgeous vintage photos that match the seasons. The number coins are wood-burned and feel wonderful. The craftmanship of this heirloom wooden calendar is superb.

Little Bee enjoyed looking outside to see what the weather looked like, so that he could choose the appropriate weather coin to hang up. He is still learning his numbers, so I helped him pick out the number 15 coin for today. He was able to easily hang up the coin onto its spot on the calendar. The calendar has a wooden add-on piece for the monthly moon phases (more to come on the moon phases). I specifically asked for the days of the week to be painted the seven colors of the rainbow. This idea was inspired from "The Kavanaugh Report" blog - Montessori Inspired Time Theme.

Weather Matching Game

I found this lovely weather printable that matches our weather coins, at "The Helpful Garden." Matching the coins to the cards was a fun game for Little Bee. His favorite weather scene was the windy coin with the leaves blowing. 

This beautiful wooden calendar was inspired by the hand-made calendar on the Counting Coconuts blog - "Our Classroom Calendar & Circle Time."

Rainbow Days of the Week

I created this hand-made rainbow days of the week from construction paper and cardboard. I stapled each colored pocket together and then I hot-glued the pocket onto the cardboard piece. Next, I wrote "today" on a large popsicle stick with an arrow pointing downwards. I explained to Little Bee that each color represents a day of the week beginning with Sunday and ending with Saturday. I played the "Days of the Week" song and pointed to each day of the week on our rainbow. Today is Sunday, so Little Bee placed the popsicle stick into Sunday's pocket.

An extension exercise that can be done with this activity is to place stickers or pictures of activities onto popsicle sticks to represent an activity that happens on that day. For example, the garbage truck comes on Mondays and we feed our pet frog on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I plan to find a garbage truck and frog stickers to place on popsicle sticks for these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AvNq2CQnOI

Practical Life Activity - Days of the Week

Another fun way to teach the days of the weeks is by incorporating a practical life activity. I downloaded this free printable and colored each day to match my rainbow days. Then I laminated it and cut out the days of the week pieces. I glued each day onto a clothespin. Little Bee practiced his fine motor skills by pinching the clothespin and then matching that day to the correct color. 

The Months and the Seasons

This Montessori season mat was inspired by the "Montessori Handmade" shop on Etsy. I plan to buy the Montessori Year Chain (beads) to match this hand-made mat when Little Bee is older. I think using this hands-on material is a fun way to learn the months of the year and how many days are in each month.

Below, I used two different printables for the matching months and season work. I found the month printables here and the seasonal sorting cards here.
To make this Montessori season mat, I took four pieces of construction paper (red, yellow, green, and blue) and taped them together as shown in the photo below. I found a large round object and traced it onto the four pieces of paper to create a circle shape. Then I cut it out and laminated each piece. I hot glued the four pieces onto cardboard to create a sturdy back. Next I cut out each seasonal photo and taped a colored backing to each photo to match the seasonal color: blue = winter, green = spring, yellow = summer, and red = autumn.Little Bee enjoyed working with his Daddy while matching each piece to its season. This activity will help him learn the seasons and the names of the months. This in turn will help him understand how to use his Montessori calendar. 

Here are a couple songs to help with learning the months of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v608v42dKeI

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5enDRrWyXaw

Moon Phases

Little Bee adores the moon and eagerly looks for it each night. I found two awesome moon phase printables that give a wonderful visual for how the moon changes through the month cycle. The "Gift of Curiosity" blog has a wonderful free phases of the moon printable that matches our moon coins perfectly. This printable shows how the moon rotates around the earth. We are also tracking the moon each night with a Lunar Cycle Calendar printable. Each night we will look up at the moon and then put a moon sticker on the calendar to match the moon in the sky. Both of these printables help Little Bee understand the concept of the moon phases and the passing of time on our Montessori calendar. 

Thanks for visiting! Please stop by the other blogs in our 12 Months of Montessori Learning series. Also, don't forget to enter the amazing giveaway at the end of this post!

Learning about the Presidents with Montessori Activities (Free Printables) by Natural Beach Living

Montessori-Inspired History: Sense of Time {Free Printables} by The Natural Homeschool

How to Prepare Montessori 3-Part Family Cards and Family Tree Activity by Living Montessori Now

Linear Calendar for Kids by Planting Peas

Timeline of our Family -- Intro to Montessori History by The Kavanaugh Report

Montessori Calendar for Kids by Mama’s Happy Hive

How to Introduce Time to Kids by Study at Home Mama

5 Ways to Learn Asian History by Child Led Life

Learning the Timeline of European History by The Pinay Homeschooler

Our Montessori-inspired Timeline of Life by Every Star is Different

Exploring History Through the Great Lessons by Grace and Green Pastures

Montessori Giveaway*This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents. You must be 18 years or older to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway