Our Three Period Montessori Christmas Lesson

  Given that Q-ball (nearly 21 months) is clearly starting to pick up new vocabulary words and has the ability to now focus on a task that interests her for several minutes, I seized this holiday season as a time to do our first more formal lesson. I used the Montessori three period lesson format to teach Q-ball new Christmas words.  And, we even finished with a craft!  She learned incredibly quickly, and we had a great time! I was shocked to see I was able to entertain a young toddler with this activity for almost 30 minutes!

Supplies:

• Christmas book with clear pictures of the vocabulary words you want to present (I used 10 Trim-the-Tree'ers as it had very clear pictures throughout.)
• Large piece of paper
• Cookie cutters (some need to match the vocabulary words you've chosen)
• Washable paint

The Lesson:

Of course, everything ends up in her mouth...

• Step 1: Using the book, I pointed out new vocabulary words to Q-ball.  For example, I pointed to the snowman saying, "This is a snowman."  (We used stocking, snowman, Christmas tree, candy cane, bell, and star.) 
• Step 2: After reviewing each word several times, I asked Q-ball to find the words in the book.  She was able to do this quickly.  (If you child is not able to do this with 100% accuracy, go back to step 1.  The goal is for your child to succeed, so you do not want to move forward until you have 100% success. Doing this over several days is more than acceptable!)
• Step 3:  I then asked Q-ball to transfer her knowledge to other similar objects. We walked around our house, and I asked her to find the "Christmas tree," "stockings," and "star."  Finally, I placed all of the cookie cutters on the table.  I repeated each vocabulary word, and Q-ball picked out the appropriate cutter.
• Step 4:  And now the fun part!  Using paint, we created stamps with the the cookie cutters.

 
Sources:
Montessori Mom. (2009). The three period lesson. Retrieved from http://www.montessorimom.com/three-period-lesson/
Montessori Print Shop Blog. (2012). How to give a Montessori 3 period lesson. Retrieved from http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/Give_a_3_Period_Lesson.html