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Practical Life: Transferring objects

There are many fun activities that children can do to develop their fine motor skills but one of the favourites in the Montessori classroom is transferring objects. This is something that keeps little ones occupied for ages and can certainly be easily done at home.

Transferring Objects tutorial with St Andrew's Montessori

There are three activities that we’d like to demonstrate; here’s what you’ll need:

Tweezing

For lesson 1 you will need: a tray (sized for little hands), 2 shallow dishes, tweezers, coffee beans/cheerios (or the like).

Corn Picking

For lesson 2 you will need: a tray, shallow dish/cup, dried corn (or similar), tweezers.

Pinching

For lesson 3 you will need: a tray, bowl, clothes pegs.

The aim of these three activities is to move objects from one container to another. Sounds simple – and it is! Have a look at the below tutorial by My Works Montessori to see how each lesson is applied:

Children will likely find these simple tasks a challenge, which is why it will keep them busy; and it is good to allow them to engage in the task for as long as they find it interesting. However, if little ones are finding the use of tweezers frustrating, you can always revert to transferring with fingers, as is demonstrated the Corn Picking activity in the above tutorial. Children will be working the same muscles as they would be using when gripping a pencil or tying shoes etc., developing their fine motor skills in much the same way as when using the tweezers.

If you’d like further information about this tutorial, feel free to contact us at info@standrewsmontessori.com. We’re happy to answer any questions.

Photo by Spiritedpuddlejumper.com