Montessori Mom

"The hands are the instruments of man's intelligence." — Maria Montessori

Welcome to a day bursting with the letter B — featuring Big Bubbles and Beautiful Birds! Today's lesson weaves together life skills, math readiness, reading, art, cooking, and outdoor nature exploration. There's something here for every age, from toddlers working on their first snips with scissors to preschoolers mastering the Montessori three-period lesson. Let's dive in!

🎒 Materials You'll Need

• Small tongs and sugar cubes for the transfer exercise
• 2 small bowls and a tray
• Number cards 1–9 (store-bought or handmade on tag board)
• 45 pennies or small counters
• Sandpaper numbers (optional, for tactile learners)
• 10 small boxes (shoeboxes or silverware boxes) and 45 popsicle sticks, slim crayons, or cotton swabs
• Sand in a square cake pan (for letter tracing)
• String, masking tape, white paper, and tempera paint (for art project)
• Safety scissors and construction paper
• Dish soap, water, glycerin, and straws (for bubble recipes)
• Bananas, fruit, skewers, and baking ingredients (for cooking)
• Bird feeder supplies, birdseed, and a bird identification book
• Binoculars for bird watching
• 👉 Delmach Sandpaper Letters on Amazon
• 👉 BOHS Montessori Bead Stair Set (1-10) on Amazon

🔎 Free Printouts

Use these free printable resources to extend today's lesson:

• 📄 Counting 1–10 — Practice counting from one to ten
• 📄 Counting Cards Set 1
• 📄 Counting Cards Set 2
• 📄 Counting Cards Set 3
• 📄 Counting Cards Set 4
• 📄 Bird Nomenclature Cards — Identify and classify the parts of a bird

🤲 Life Skills: Picking Up Objects with Tongs

This classic Montessori transfer exercise builds fine motor control and concentration — and it's wonderfully satisfying for little hands.

Materials: Small tongs, sugar cubes, 2 small bowls, and a tray.

Place a bowl filled with sugar cubes and an empty bowl side by side on the tray. Slowly demonstrate how to pick up one sugar cube with the tongs and place it into the empty bowl. Then step back and let your child repeat the activity as many times as they wish. The repetition is where the magic happens!

🔢 Math Readiness: It's as Easy as 1, 2, 3

Counting

Materials: Numbers 1–9 and 45 pennies or counters.

The first step in math is to start counting. Take 3 pennies, count slowly, and point to each penny saying, "one, two, three." If this is too difficult, start with 2 or even 1 penny. Add another number every day until your child can count to 10. Whenever possible, count with your child — count in the grocery store, in the garden, in the park, anywhere! Counting is the first essential skill for math.

Numeral Recognition: The Montessori Three-Period Lesson

Materials: Number cards 1 through 9, written on tag board or purchased. (You can make sandpaper numbers if your child is a tactile learner or needs the reinforcement of learning with sound, sight, and touch.)

If your child doesn't recognize all their numbers yet, this is where to begin. Start with just two numbers if your child finds that manageable.

Step One — Introduction:
Point to the number 1 and say, "This is one." Point to the number 2 and say, "This is two."

Step Two — Recognition:
"Give me one." "Give me two." (If your child can do this, move to Step Three. If not, return gently to Step One.)

Step Three — Recall:
Point to number 1 and ask, "What is this?" Continue with the other numbers. (If your child can do this, you're finished with this lesson. If not, go back to Step Two.)

Add new numbers each day.

💡 Why this works: When teaching new concepts, Montessori always uses this three-step method. It breaks the learning process into introducing the new concept, understanding it at a concrete level, and finally understanding it at an abstract level. This approach is beautifully positive — you never need to say "no" or "wrong." You simply go back to the last step your child knew.

🧮 Advanced Math: Number Box & Counting Game

When your child has mastered counting and can recognize the numbers 1 through 9, you can proceed to these activities.

The Number Box

To make this simple counting apparatus, save 10 small cardboard shoeboxes or individual silverware boxes (from a dollar or discount store). You'll also need 45 popsicle sticks, slim crayons, or cotton swabs.

Label the boxes 0 through 9. Show your child the 0 box, and ask if he or she can guess how many items make zero. You'll usually get a resounding "none!" If not, tell them. Put one item in the 1 box, two items in the 2 box, and so on. If your child takes over before you can finish — wonderful!

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
—	●	● ●	● ● ●	● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

The Counting Game

Show your child (saying each number) the order of the number cards 1–9. Give your child the number cards and ask, "Can you put these numbers in order, one through nine?"

If your child has difficulty, give fewer number cards — start with 1 through 3 and add a new number each day until your child can place 1–9 in order.

After putting the numbers in order, show your child how to place pennies under each card — one penny under 1, two under 2, and so on. If your child has difficulty placing the correct quantity, use fewer numbers at first. Give the exact number of pennies needed for the exercise (45 total for 1–9). If your child doesn't have enough pennies or has too many, they'll discover on their own that one of the numbers has too many or too few!

💡 Hint: If your child is ready for these activities but finds all the numbers 0–9 overwhelming, break the exercises down to 0–4 in the Number Box and Counting Game, then add more numbers when they're comfortable.

📖 Reading Readiness: Introducing the Letter "B"

Show your child the letter "b." Use the same three-period lesson:

1. Point to it and say, "This is b."
2. Ask your child to point to the letter "b."
3. Point to the letter and ask, "What letter is this?"

Tell your child the sound "b" makes — the short buh sound, like in bat. If your child has difficulty with both the letter name and the sound, just introduce the sound.

To reinforce the letter, let your child point to it and sing to the melody of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat":

🎵 Buh, buh, buh, the bubbling sound,
"B" makes a bubbling sound.
Buh, buh, buh, buh,
"B" makes a bubbling sound!

If this is easy for your child, add more short "b" words: baby, boy, ball.

Sand Letter Tracing

Put some sand in a square cake pan or box. Help your child trace the lowercase "b" in the sand while saying the short buh sound. This multisensory approach connects touch, sight, and sound beautifully.

🎨 Art & Fine Motor Activities

String Painting

Materials: String, masking tape, white paper, tempera paint.

You'll need a string for every pot of paint you're using. Place several different colors of tempera paint into individual paper cups or recycled plastic bowls. Wrap a small piece of masking tape on the end of each string to create a little handle your child can grip. Using thick, light-colored construction paper, swirl the paint-soaked strings around for an unusual abstract effect!

Toddler Cutting Exercise

Take a 6-inch wide sheet of construction paper and, with safety scissors, fringe the paper by making one snip on each attempt. This is a wonderful way to introduce cutting because your child only needs to make one downward movement. Help open the scissors for the next fringe. It won't be long before your child will be able to cut anything — my children would even cut their shoelaces! 😄

🫧 Lots of Bubbles!

Discuss the shape of bubbles — they're mostly round, some are big and some are small. You can even count to see how long each bubble lasts!

Bubble Recipe 1: Big Blowing Bubbles

• 10 cups of water
• 1 cup clear blue or yellow dish soap
• 1–4 teaspoons glycerin (makes bubbles last longer — buy at a drug store)

Stir gently (don't make it frothy!) in a big bucket or container.

Bubble Recipe 2: Small Batch

• 1 cup warm water
• ¼ cup blue dishwashing liquid
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. glycerin (optional)

Combine well, but gently. Use as you would any other bubbles.

Bubble Recipe 3: Sugar Bubbles

• ½ cup dish soap
• 1½ cups water
• 2 teaspoons sugar or glycerin

Mix all 3 ingredients together. Don't stir or shake too much! Store in a jar.

Bubble Experiments

Experiment with blowing bubbles using all kinds of fun household items: plastic six-pack holders, plastic fruit baskets with holes, a slotted spoon, a plastic straw, a big circle made from an old wire coat hanger, a recycled margarine tub with the bottom cut out — anything your imagination can think of!

Bubble Landscape

Materials: A cookie sheet with a lip (or rectangular cake pan), bubble mix, straws, a whisk, or an old-fashioned hand egg beater.

Fill the pan about ½ inch with bubble mixture. Use straws to blow, a whisk, or egg beaters to make a fun bubbly, frothy sculpture. Kids who love getting wet and messy will adore this activity!

🌤️ Hints for Great Bubbles

Bubbles love cool, overcast days with high humidity (because they're made of water!). Blow bubbles right after a rainstorm or on a foggy day and watch how long they last. On dry days, add up to 50% more water to your homemade bubble mixture. Blowing bubbles under trees or near a lake helps keep the moisture in your bubbles. Try laying a wool blanket on the ground — bubbles that land on it will take even longer to pop!

🐦 Family Weekend Project: Bird Watching Area

Make a bird watching area in your yard or on your deck! Birds need several things to attract them: plenty of food during all four seasons and lots of fresh water. You can make a bird feeder and bath from an old pie tin, or purchase one at a discount store or wild bird shop.

Fun facts: Birds love to eat old eggshells for calcium, which they need for laying eggs. Spread out some sand, which helps them with digestion.

Buy a color-illustrated bird book for the state where you live — they're less bulky and small enough to keep nearby. A good durable pair of binoculars is a must for up-close viewing!

What Do Birds Like to Eat?

Different birds like different types of food. Sunflower seeds attract many common birds! Black oil, black striped, and hulled sunflower seeds attract:

• Blue Jays
• Cardinals
• Chickadees
• Evening Grosbeaks
• Common Grackles
• American Goldfinches
• House Finches
• Mourning Doves
• Purple Finches
• Scrub Jays
• Song Sparrows
• Tufted Titmice
• White-crowned Sparrows
• White-throated Sparrows

Try other types of food such as millet, peanuts, breadcrumbs, cut-up apples and oranges. What types of birds come for these foods? What other animals does your food attract — squirrels? Chipmunks?

Help Birds Build a Nest

Leave bits of yarn and string, cotton and stuffing, straw, bright strips of cloth, and even hair in your bird area as building materials. Look at the nests this spring and see if you can spot any of your contributions!

👩‍🍳 ABC Cooking: "B" Is for Banana!

Banana Kabobs

Peel a banana! With long skewers or toothpicks, make a fun fruit kabob with thick-sliced bananas, pineapple chunks, grapes, marshmallows, and any other favorite fruit. Brush with orange juice to keep the bananas from turning brown.

This is a wonderful practical life activity. Even a young toddler can thread the fruit and "paint" the orange juice on the finished products with a brush. Let your older child peel and cut the bananas with a safe plastic knife — slowly demonstrate how to peel and cut first.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup sugar (or your favorite sweetener such as maple syrup or honey)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup mashed banana

Directions: Preheat oven to 325°F.

🤲 Practical life skill: Both toddlers and preschoolers can peel the bananas and mash them. Let your child help beat the eggs with a whisk, and take turns stirring the mixture!

Beat eggs until foamy, add sugar and stir. Add flour, baking powder, soda, and salt, alternating with mashed banana. Mix well and pour into a 9×5×3″ loaf pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing.

Nuts or chocolate chips may be added before baking for extra flavor and texture!

📚 Reading Out Loud Corner

Here are some wonderful books about birds and bubbles to share together:

• Pájaros by Diane James
• The Feathered Crown by Marsha Hayles
• The Life Cycle of a Bird by Bobbie Kalman
• Dizzy's Bird Watch by Alison Inches
• The Hungry Hummingbird by April Pulley Sayre
• Birds in Your Backyard by Barbara Herkert
• The Strange Egg by Mary Newell DePalma
• Pop! A Book About Bubbles by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

🇪🇸 Spanish Corner

Use the three-period lesson in Spanish too!

1. Point to your mouth, say the word "mouth," then the Spanish word: boca. Have your child repeat boca.
2. Ask your child to show you boca.
3. Point to your mouth and ask, "What is this called in Spanish?"

Proceed slowly and only move to the next lesson when your child is ready. There are wonderful Spanish CDs and audio programs for young children that you may want to explore as well!