E's Montessori Shelf

E(1)'s Montessori activities are set up on a small shelf that was mine when I was little.  We attached the shelf to the back of the girls' play kitchen since we did not have a wall to attach it to.  This has worked out nicely because I can turn it to face outward into the room during the morning and then face it towards the sliding glass doors during most of the day.  Having these materials out for only a few hours a day seems to keep them a little more fresh and exciting :) 

The top row of E's shelf has the following activities: geometric solids, wooden nesting bowls, Brown Bear "I Spy" bottle and matching cards. On the second shelf is an imbucare box, a q-tip and bear bottle activity, a sandpaper e, and a bead maze (she was uninterested in the bead maze, so I replaced it with cutting fruit). On the 3rd shelf are the Montessori Cylinder Blocks and Ryan's Room (Lace 'Em Up Dragon) 2 (ours is actually a snake, but they don't make it anymore).



Here is the play kitchen.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I Spy Bottle

I recently added this Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I Spy bottle to E's Montessori shelf.  We had fun reading the book and looking for the different animals in the bottle.  I made this I Spy bottle for O a few years ago using lentils instead of rice. 



I really wish I'd put the pictures on both sides of the little cards.  It can be frustrating to look for the animals when all of the cards seem to turn over to the back at the same time and stubbornly refuse to turn back over no matter how many ways we flip, shake, and roll the bottle.  Although, to be honest, I was the only one who was frustrated...E didn't seem to mind at all :)

Brown Bear I Spy Bottle

I made an I Spy bottle for O to go along with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I got the idea from here. Thanks Shannon for the link to that site. Its full of great ideas! I used lentils instead of rice since O already has a rice I Spy bottle. For this activity we read the book and after we read each page we look for the animal on that page. I kept saying "Green frog, green frog. Where are you?" O wasn't too interested at first (she just wanted to shake and open the bottle), but she became more interested as a I called to the animals asking where they were.