3-Part Cards: Inexpensive and Easy
I ran into Target last night and the $1 display that Target always has right inside the door had flashcards, puzzles, books and other educational things. Since I had just perused the latest copy of the Montessori Services catalog, I looked to see if I could make some Montessori materials from the $1 bins.
I am not sure where we will end up coming down on the quality versus expense scale for Montessori materials. I swoon over the Nienhuis catalog, but then need to be revived after looking at the price list. I will probably try to make as much as I can, but this is partly because I come from a crafty family. I am used to jerryrigging to accomplish things inexpensively.
You can easily turn 2 sets of the Target flashcards into 3-part cards. It works out to about 2% of the cost of buying the unlaminated cards from Montessori Services (less than 1% of the cost of the laminated ones). You can also buy the images online or download them for free from Montessori Materials and print them yourself, but even that would be more expensive than these cards considering the cost of printer ink and paper. And of course, printing them would take a lot of time.
The "First Words" flashcards used lowercase letters whereas, unfortunately, the "Insects" cards did not. There are facts on the back of each card. The "Dinosaur" cards have the meaning of the names, which is a ready-made way to introduce Latin roots to little guys!
A trip to the hardware store should be enough to gather materials to make your own wooden 3-part tray. (Alternatively, you could just divide up a shoebox lid.)
Dash has loved matching activities since he was 15 months old. Grandmom colored these large pictures for him:
Dash also liked matching colors:
Mr. Incredible thinks the boys are ready to bypass these simple activities and gave them something more challenging to try:
Also, be sure to check out Katherine at Life in the Onion Dome's posts on curriculum planning if you are interested (see left sidebar: Curriculum Planning)!
I am not sure where we will end up coming down on the quality versus expense scale for Montessori materials. I swoon over the Nienhuis catalog, but then need to be revived after looking at the price list. I will probably try to make as much as I can, but this is partly because I come from a crafty family. I am used to jerryrigging to accomplish things inexpensively.
You can easily turn 2 sets of the Target flashcards into 3-part cards. It works out to about 2% of the cost of buying the unlaminated cards from Montessori Services (less than 1% of the cost of the laminated ones). You can also buy the images online or download them for free from Montessori Materials and print them yourself, but even that would be more expensive than these cards considering the cost of printer ink and paper. And of course, printing them would take a lot of time.
The "First Words" flashcards used lowercase letters whereas, unfortunately, the "Insects" cards did not. There are facts on the back of each card. The "Dinosaur" cards have the meaning of the names, which is a ready-made way to introduce Latin roots to little guys!A trip to the hardware store should be enough to gather materials to make your own wooden 3-part tray. (Alternatively, you could just divide up a shoebox lid.)
Dash has loved matching activities since he was 15 months old. Grandmom colored these large pictures for him:
Dash also liked matching colors:
Mr. Incredible thinks the boys are ready to bypass these simple activities and gave them something more challenging to try:
Also, be sure to check out Katherine at Life in the Onion Dome's posts on curriculum planning if you are interested (see left sidebar: Curriculum Planning)!
posted by texas mommy at
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
1 Comments:
I'm just now introducing Montessori materials into our learning room and I really like the 3 part cards and tray. Your idea is great. I think my Sophia would really like this. Thanks for sharing the idea.
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Anonymous, at 10:56 PM
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