Down the Hole

Budget Works Kids Do for Too Long!

We all know that children love to drop things into small holes. 

I have made endless varieties of small motor skill works based on this love.

Many are one of a kind because I find the objects at Goodwill and figure out how to use them after playing around with things I have on hand in my many school storage rooms. 

They are always winners with the kids.

Incense jar with cocktail picks. 

I sometimes have to limit kid's time with this because they will do this for way too long.  

Olive picks in the holes of a food shaker.

Antique salt shaker with hair curler picks.

Swizzle sticks in a pencil holder.

Tiny beads dropped in vanilla jars.

Tiny plastic hats upside down into a small ice cube tray.

Hey, I had them both in storage and they called out to me for union. 

It worked!

And maybe the oddest:

Pom Poms down the volcano!

Don't know what the green tray is for or the black plastic tube.

They just wanted each other.

Kids Love It!! 

I have more. Many, many more.

Gingerbread Boys

So I find these things at estate sales and Goodwill for pennies.

I bring them back to my "Loose Parts" storage room. 

I have a lot!

I play around with the items and make a theme or subject sometimes like apples and gingerbread boys.

I do it. Looks good. It goes on the "Loose Parts" shelf and I watch the children approach it after a lesson is given by me. Not all children naturally understand how to approach making a design and sometimes a heap of all objects is happily laid out. Time for a repeat lesson. They chant, "Circle, circle, diamond in the middle." as they try again. Chaos becomes pattern. Pattern becomes beauty. 

 http://www.aneverydaystory.com/2013/03/05/the-theory-of-loose-parts/

"So cute it hurts to look at them!", I was told.

A grandma crafter is looking down from heaven in wonder at her sewing turned into this counting work! Everything in this post is from this one grandma's estate sale. Thank you for making our classroom so darling!

My only vice is going to estate sales. What to do with one of a kind finds? I love to figure it out! Is it Montessori? Is it Reggio?  Who cares! They are darling and they get the concept across and hold children's attention and make them gasp with delight to do these works. 

A bag of life size plastic ants!  Get the tweezers out! 

Another bag of plastic flies?  Build a road to the stars! 

I know it is a bit weird but the boys love it!

Vinyl floor mat with movable stars !

When one pinches the jaws of these sewn heads the mouths open!  The kids love these! Pretty beads are dropped in and out.

Vinyl floor mat and many movable objects create this darling neighborhood!

Ooh la la! The pink poodle! 

I faint from cuteness! 

But it is not Montessori!

We work with children and children LOVE this!

Natural object frame on a vinyl floor mat. 

Grandma provided the sewing. 

Land, Air and Water. A Montessori/Reggio Hybrid Layout

A mix on classical Montessori geography and Reggio Loose Parts? Oh, no!

Oh, yes! It is way cool. In the past I have used the common three bottles filled with dirt, water and air and the matching animal cards. And with this I do give the traditional intro using the globe to describe the land, ocean and being surrounded by air.

But then I deviate using cut paper, a painted shell on canvas and a Lego cave ( horrors to a purist ) simply laid on a large floor mat

Then we lay out the land part which is rocks, the ocean part which are shells and the air part which is cotton ball clouds. Labels for land, air and water are added.

The animals come next.

Last the vehicles cards are talked about and added.

The old way is classic, but this way is so interactive and takes much thought and consideration in placing all the objects. 

I love it. 

Trivet Nature Free Form Design

A wooden trivet, and empty glass frame and potpourri matched in a divided tray makes a beautiful free choice design work!  

Cheap and Practical Montessori

Kids don’t need perfection, beauty or big bucks spent to place a successful, intriguing work before them.

Stuff around the house can be put together in surprising ways for small hands to use.

My staff says I need to go to estate sale rehab. Years of bringing back random, strange objects has always paid off in the creation of a huge variety of manipulatives that are truly unique.

My box of unmatched items grew empty so off I went bargain hunting again. 25 cents an item or for the whole bag! I always pair each activity up with a 50 cent tray and a 10 cent spoon and my imagination. This week they are not so pretty, but I know the kids will love doing them.

My students inhale practical life works and I rotate them often. The bargain works are created and then bagged up, often with the appropriate 50 cent tray, for quick finding and easy rotation. I know I have over 100 practical life works bagged to switch out. Almost all objects are discount finds from Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage or estate sales.

See my other estate sale posts for more ideas!
http://inspiredmontessori.blogspot.com/search/label/Budget

http://inspiredmontessori.blogspot.com/search/label/Estate%20Sale%20Works

Estate sale bonanza. The odd parts fall together to make
this sweet activity for very young children.

I have been saving juice lids and must come up with more ways to use them all!

Old flag poles find their mate!

These unloved objects have been at the bottom of my unmatched items box for over 15 years. I never thought I could find a use for them until I found wooden eggs at an estate sale. Then, presto! Their hidden potential was finally made visible.  

Our toddlers love this and will do it over and over!  Open ended free choice matching of base to wooden eggs. 

This tall bread tin makes the perfect down the chute work with styrofoam balls. 

This is so elementary that I hesitated to put it out. The twos and threes did this non-stop all afternoon! 

This would make a church grandma proud.  Church bazaar craft of felt mittens with a hair clip inside is a perfect pinch open and shut work for my students. 

Geometric Solids Fractions

This is why I love estate sales!

Bonanza!

I sorted two boxes of wooden fraction blocks found in the basement of an estate sale that match the Geometric Solids !

Oklahoma barite rose rocks and a weird ball were in the boxes!

Found dates in boxes from 1979.

 I am sure the past owner, who was an early childhood educator, 

is smiling down from heaven!

Cube Extension

Every which way to divide a cube.

It boggles my mind!

Rectangular Prism Extension

What a lesson this will be!

The rest of the family now have all wooden classification matches.

I had used a basket of found objects of various shapes before. 

Mystery forms

 I struggled with these until they became cubes from three odd looking pieces!

Flat wooden shapes hold a future of design wonderful to behold!

I have bagged the rest of the shapes for exploration in math 

and Reggio loose parts!

My old way of classification has been upgraded!