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Friday, March 7, 2014

Princess Unit for Toddlers

Whoever said the princess theme can't be brought into a toddler's Montessori "classroom"? Children love princesses and I knew my daughter would be delighted to see royal trays for a week. My aim was to keep it grounded in reality...because royalty really does exist! :)

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Coloring a real palace with gem crayons

Funnily enough, although our family has traveled a lot, we have yet to visit London (mind you, we've been to the U.K., but not England per se). Still, I thought it would be nice for Z, who love coloring, to color a real "Castle". To do so, she used my homemade royal gem crayons

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Pouring gems into a chest

Pretty gems! These were quite popular! Big gems found in our local euro shop, chest from Michael's a few years ago and little pitcher from Montessori Services. The activity was simple but well loved: pouring the gems from the pitcher to the chest. 

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Polishing a princess's mirror

I actually thought this would not come off the shelf but Zahavah liked polishing the mirror. Once. After it was clean, she made sure to keep it clean so she could hold the mirror and admire herself! :)

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Matching fantasy princess cards...no time to make a real set :(

Originally intended on making a matching set using pictures of real princes and princesses but I ran out of time. Instead, (and to her great delight might I add!), I substituted with Disney's Princesses from Wonder Forge's Matching Game! 

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Making a tiara with beads

Making a pipe cleaner tiara is definitely nothing new...but for Zahavah, it was. I chose metallic grey ones and metallic grey pony beads too. I shaped the tiara beforehand and then, Z only had to add beads where she wanted and as many as she wanted. 
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Trying it on! :)

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Paper punching a princess's letterhead stationary paper

Paper punching is an excellent activity for muscle strengthening so I took out some of my old corner paper punches I used for scrapbooking. I prepared stationary with letterhead for my little princess and she had lots of fun punching the corners of these papers to embellish them. Later she also drew on  them and well, I'm sure we'll be sending these out as official invitations for something very important! :)

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Stamping a princess's ballroom scene
Princess-themed stamps will always be greatly appreciated, no matter what, but with a special scene to stamp them in, it makes it even more fun sometimes. Mackenzie Ferry uploaded her drawing of a ballroom scene so I printed it as a backdrop for the stamping activity. Zahavah loved to positioned her princesses, crowns and horses in the stairs and all. Stamps: Melissa & Doug Wooden Princess Set.

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Making a tiara with gems and glitter glue
A paper tiara to decorate! Who doesn't like gluing gems and using glitter glue? I purposely chose small gems for fine motor reasons by the way. Same with the glitter glue. I chose small squeeze tubes instead of sprinkling action so my daughter could learn to control her muscles throughout this fun activity. 

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Royal Stables: Parts of a Horse Booklet

Parts of a horse. Quite self-explanatory I guess. This is our first "parts of a..." booklet. Zahavah loves horses and for a first book, I thought it would be appropriate. At a toddler's level, horses don't have too many "hard" words to juggle with and she already knew a few of course. To make it more concrete, I used one of my daughter's horse  to demonstrate the parts and then, one part per page would be colored in the booklet corresponding to that part.


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6 comments:

  1. The pipe cleaner tiara is a great idea! I am definitely trying this at our next playdate :) thanks for sharing. hoping over from Mom's LIbrary linky.
    -Reshama @ Stackingbooks.com

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    1. Happy to hear! I pre-made the tiara but older kids can shape their own. I've seen some pretty intricate ones out there and some simpler ones as well. Beads of various colors to illustrate gems could also be neat. Have fun with it! :)

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  2. Fun stuff! Perfect for a young princess. :-)

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    1. Absolutely. Simple yet fun. I tried not to go the commercial way this time to keep it in line with Montessori philosophies but for birthdays, we usually do Disney trays and well, they are just as fun! :)

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  3. I LOVE the tiara and gem activities. If we do another princess unit in the future I'm definitely going to have to include them. You have me on the look out for any gems and jewels I can find from this unit and others. :)

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    1. I actually bought a bottle with bigger colorful gems of various shapes in the fall and couldn't even find it for this week. Very sad about that but I'm willing to bet it will turn up this week! LOL I think princess week may come back next year when the letter and number work starts so that will spice things up a lot in terms of trays...

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