The ideas and methods of the Italian teacher Maria Montessori have conquered the whole world. The point is not even that her students, without compulsion, by the age of 3-5, began to read and had an idea of all arithmetic operations. The main task of Montessori pedagogy was the child's sensory development - the education of the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste) and the development of fine motor skills by creating a specially prepared environment. We bring to your attention a set of didactic games for the sensory development of a child at home.
It is necessary
- - thin rope 1-1.5 meters long
- - 10-12 metal clips
- - a set of colored plasticine
- - basket or plastic bucket
- - two deep cups
- - flat bowl
- - 300-500 gr. semolina, millet, sugar or pure sand
- - 7 beads of red, green and yellow colors
- - bags of the same dense opaque fabric with ties
- - nuts of different sizes and shapes (walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews)
- - small cubes from the constructor
- - dry leaves
- - pieces of foam rubber
- - a sponge the size of a child's hand
- - kitchen towel
Instructions
Step 1
“Collecting berries”. Pull the rope between the backs of 2 chairs. Roll up green and red plasticine balls in advance and pin them on paper clips. Hang paper clips with balls on the string. Invite your child to take a walk in an imaginary forest for berries. The basic rule is to pick the balls one at a time with three fingers of your right hand, and hold the paperclip with your left at this time. The child should carefully put the plucked "berries" in the basket, standing to the right of him (teach him to move from left to right, as in writing).
Step 2
Sprinkle the tracks. Invite your child to sprinkle a path 3-5 cm wide with sand (semolina, millet) on the table. To complicate the task, limit the path to something, for example, strips of paper or a "fence" of folded pencils. Sand should be poured with three fingers of the right hand, folding them with a pinch. Do not go beyond the edges of the track. Girls can be offered to sprinkle sugar on a plasticine cake. In this way, the fingers are developed for working with a pen / pencil, and the child learns to observe clear contour boundaries.
Step 3
"Helping Cinderella". Tell your child an abbreviated version of the Cinderella story, focusing on the moment when the stepmother made the girl sort the grains / beans / peas. Pour beads of different colors into a bowl, place deep cups next to it. Invite your child to help the heroine of the fairy tale arrange the imaginary grain in cups according to a certain color.
Step 4
"Guess." Fill bags made of dense fabric with different fillers: 1 bag - pieces of foam rubber, 2 - dry leaves or pieces of crumpled paper, 3 - walnuts, 4 - small cubes, etc. Tie the bags carefully so that the contents do not fall out during various manipulations. Invite your child to guess what is in each bag by feeling. Also, the child can shake the bags, listening to the resulting sounds. Thus, fine motor skills, touch and hearing develop, as well as the concepts of "soft-hard", "big-small", etc. are formed.
Step 5
"The Magic Sponge". Place two deep cups on the table at a distance of 3 cm from each other, fill one cup halfway with water. Prepare a tea towel (or any rag). Take a sponge and show your child its properties: how to properly pick up water with a sponge and squeeze it out. Suggest, as a magical experiment, transfer water from one cup to another with a sponge. Demonstrate how this is done by spilling some water on the table on purpose. Reinforce the baby's notion of the absorbency of the fabric by removing the water with a towel or rag. This exercise will allow your child to learn how to clean up spilled water or juice on their own.
