botany puzzle workmats
Sep 9th, 2007 by lapazfarm
I have had quite a busy, crafty weekend here. Seems like the more I make the more I see needs to be made! But I decided it was time for a little change-up in the Montessori materials making department.
As an alteranative to three-part cards, and to add a little variety to our activities, I decide to make workmats for our botany puzzles.
We have the typical 4 puzzles: parts of a leaf, flower, seed, and tree. First I traced each puzzle onto white cardstock and labeled them. These are the controls.
That was easy enough to do.
Then I made another unlabeled copy and I colored them to match the puzzles. I cut them out, glued them to light green cardstock, and laminated them. These are the workmats.
The workmats can be used for puzzle building, tracing, or labeling.
And then I made little labels to match with the puzzles or workmats. It took me awhile to figure out how I would store all of the little labels, but I found some little velvet bags at the flea market this weekend for a quarter each, and knew they would be just the thing!
I decorated the bags with felt to match the puzzles:
And that was it! I don’t think dd will have any trouble knowing which little bag holds the proper labels for each puzzle!
I really enjoyed this project and it was not difficult at all to do. The coloring took awhile, but everything else went quickly. They turned out very colorful and I think will encourage use of the botany puzzles, and the little bags make me smile!
You did a beautiful job. I don’t have the botany puzzles. They look wonderful. I really like the little felt bags. They make me smile too.
**smiling!** ;-D
These are great Theresa, I love them! I think this approach is perfect for any of the *parts of* type Montessori puzzles and a lovely alternative to the three-part cards, thanks for sharing these!! Aaagh, more stuff to make
wow.. I love your ideas.. I have been a fan of your website for a while now and just love the way you educate your children and the methods you use
..
I do have a question.. if its not too much trouble.
I have a child that seems to struggle with spelling and reading. He is great in math and building things etc. I have looked on the internet for mont. ideas for spelling and phonics but havent found any I like. Do you have any ideas for those two areas? Esp for one who struggles? He gets very discouraged.. and I dont want that to happen.
I have been struggling to find what fits my son and after 4 years i think some real hands on activities is what he really .. really needs
Any help or advice is much appreciated.
Thanks for sharing your website .. You really do make learning fun !
Blessings
Ruthie
Ruthie, before I can answer you, I have a couple questions. I notice you have 2 boys (and an adorable little girl!). Is it the older or younger boy who is struggling, and how old is he?
What methods have you tried so far and what seems to be the sticking point?
Which of the Mont methods have you seen that you do not care for?
Please feel free to email me and we can chat about it more privately if you wish! My email is :
lapazfarm at yahoo dot com.
I’m just stickign my head in with a few tips:
- tracign letters in things like sand or rice
- tracing letters on his back and getting him to guess
- making letters out of dough and talking about the sound
If he’s into building things, he could be a kinesthetic learner.
Great ideas Andrea! Stick your head in any time!
Thanks for the tips
) .. I will try and use your ideas and use them with the blends etc .. also with his actual spelling words..
Theresa.. i actually emailed you
thanks for you time..
maybe he could do his spelling while jumping on the trampoline and screaming his words to me
… .. 
blessings
ruthie
Once again, you amaze me!!!