Montessori Activities and Games for Kids

With so many Montessori games for kids available online, you’re bound to feel confused when trying to choose the one. Montessori activities and games help young children to gain independence by learning to things themselves.

“Help Me To Help Myself”

– Montessori Motto

What Do Children Learn From Montessori Games and Activities?

Toddlers and preschoolers find these activities engaging and it also helps them to develop the following skills. A win win if you ask me!

• Gross and Fine Motor Skills: Ability to Assess Risk, confidence and self esteem
• Practical Life Skills: Independence, concentration, self-control and physical co-ordination.
• Sensory Skills: Montessori also aims to develop the 5 senses of children so that they can isolate quantities such as texture, size, colour, form and weight, sound and smell.
• Language Skills: From phonic sounds to consonant digraphs and vowel digraphs Montessori takes children step by step, so that they can
• Social and Cultural Skills: Interacting with peers and adults and learning to express themselves.

While there are many cute wooden Montessori games for kids available online, let me just run through some activities that you can set up with things that may already be at your house.

Here are some fun and budget friendly Montessori activities and games for kids that require minimum spend.

Montessori Activities to Develop Gross Motor Skills

1. Activities like carrying a small basket
2. Carrying boxes to and fro from the toy shelf without dropping.
3. Emptying a color box and filling it back.
4. Carrying their plates and glasses to the dining table and back to the sink once done.

Montessori Activities to Develop Fine Motor Activities

1. Once you child excels these basic activities start with the next level. Following activities will your child to develop his fine motor skills.
2. Create a sensory basket using common household items like spoons, bowls, boxes, paper clips, let them explore it.
3. Let them feel different textures like that of kitchen sponges, soft toys, cushions, rugs and sand paper.
4. Take a cheese shakers a herb sprinkler and some toothpicks. Let your child push toothpicks into them. You could also take a piggy bank and some papers strips or coins. Let him try to drop the paper strips inside the piggy bank.
5. Give some dough and allow the child to use a rolling pin and cut the dough using a cookie cutter.
6. Allow them to transfer dry content from one bowl to another. This can include raisins, cereals, puffed rice etc. Avoid anything that can cause a choking hazard.
7. Give them mortar and pestle to crush food ingredients. They will enjoy this!
8. If your child is 2 years plus you can even try getting him to solve 10-12 piece jigsaw puzzle all by himself.
9. Some kids love beading! Take a thick string and jumbo beads and let them try to string them all. This will build dexterity in their fingers. Be sure to supervise as some beads may just be chocking hazards.
10. Encourage your child to help out around the house by asking them to hang socks or fold their clothes. Kids also love to sweep the floor. So give me a small “jhadu” and watch him have fun sweeping.
11. Finger painting is again a great way to promote hand eye coordination.
12. Do something like giving your child a sponge and allowing him to soak it in colored water. He may like to squeeze out the water out of the sponge into the other bowl or just play with it.
13. You can also start giving him crayons and color pencils to color and play with. This will help to build a better grip between his thumbs and forefinger.

Montessori Activities to Develop Practical Life Skills

Allow your child to play and handle real life objects in a safe setting. This will help them to practice life skills. Allow them to play with different household objects and let them figure out how to use it on their own.

1. Take their help with drying clothes. Start with small and easy clothes first and allow your child to place them on the clothesline.
2. Let the child roll and unroll a mat on their own.
3. After playing, let the child pick up their own toys and keep it back on the toy shelf.
4. Let the child help with folding small clothes like napkins and socks.
5. Let them explore everyday objects like locks, keys, nuts or cloth clips and figure out how they work. 
6. Let the child clean his own cup, spoon, and plate. Ask him to help you with washing the utensils, cleaning tables or dusting once he is 3 years plus. Always acknowledge their help and praise a job well done.
7. If you have a garden or some plants, allow your child to water the plants.
8. Encourage them to wash their hands, face, and bodies on their own. This may take up more bath time than usual, but it will foster independence.
9. Get them to arrange books in the book shelf. This will help them to take care of their things.
10. Use a variety of different locks and get them match lock and keys. This activity encourages problem solving behavior.
11. Allow the child to help you to vegetables and fruits in the sink. Prop a small stool and let them climb up and help you in the kitchen by peeling banana, carrots or eggs.

Montessori Activities to Develop Sensory Skills

1. Sensory activities will help the child to explore their five senses – sight, smell, sound, touch and taste. For sensory play activities, you can DIY (Do It Yourself) at home or buy some minimal supplies from the store.
2. The texture of homemade or play doh is a great sensory activity for toddlers. They can use the rolling pin and cookie cutters to cut out different shapes. It is a great way to boost their creativity. You can also use food color to make different color dough.
3. Spend a day exploring crayons, color pencils and paints. Expose your child to the world of colors with finger painting, thread painting and vegetable painting etc. Let them color, scribble as per their whim. You can also ask your child to color on uneven surfaces like a sand paper or different textured papers.
4. Different musical instruments like flute, drums and keyboard also appeal to toddlers a lot. Let them explore the sound coming from each instrument. You can also start singing songs and ask your child to join.

Montessori Activities to Develop Language and Math Skills

Language skills will develop as your child learns to express himself. Children love to learn and use new words repetitively. You can gently prod them to explore new phonic sounds and mathematical concepts using the following activities. 

1. Engage in fun conversations with your child as much as possible. Read or tell them stories, asking them to repeat the last sentence or word you said. 
2. Use flash cards or reading cards to make your child learn new words. They can easily recognize and name most animals, vegetables and fruits. 
3. Before starting with the numbers, the child should understand the concept of sorting and how sizes can be different. You can teach them by using Montessori mathematical puzzles or even regular different sized toys.
4. Start by discussing the different shapes. Try to teach from real life examples like round rotis, coins or wheels. 
5. Teach them numbers with an everyday examples of food they eat for example 1 cup of milk, 2 boiled eggs and so on. 

Montessori Activities to Develop Social Skills

1. Allow your child to mingle with other kids. Let them play in a team and share toys with each other. Initially all kids fight over toys, but slowly they learn that playing together is more fun.
2. Outdoor playing is also important for every child. Take them for walks or play dates in the park.
3. Teach him to greet people, to shake hands and to wish good bye.
4. Encourage him to say “Sorry” or apologize for bad behavior.
5. Pretend play is another creative method to teach as well as its a fun activity. Let them be a doctor, shopkeeper, teacher anything of their choice. It is a great way to teach them about team play, money, services, different roles.

Montessori Toys and Games For Kids

Besides the above mentioned Montessori activities, there are many Montessori games for kids available in the market. Children can be encouraged to use wooden puzzles, wooden blocks or building blocks.

Most of the following Montessori toys for kids are available online in India on Amazon, Flipkart or Firstcry.

Trinkets & More – Wooden Marble Slider Toy 

A great toy to teach the concept of gravity to your little one. Six cups drop marbles in a relay. The marbles in the cup at the top, tilt down due to their own weight, and so keep falling cup to cup till the they reach the last one.

• Enhances hand-eye coordination and provokes curiosity
• Improves fine motor skills and spatial skills
• Made of solid wood non toxic paints and child safe materials
• Age group 3 Years plus

Available on Amazon here.

Segolike Montessori Color Box

Segolike Montessori has a great range of Mathematical Materials as well. This one however is a colour box. Comes with 63 colours which are different shades of red, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple, brown and pink.

• Help To know about color and to do color contrasting
• Helps to  develop a child’s visual sensitivity
• Cultivates the beauty of color

Available on Amazon here.