March Classroom Madness

Getting ready to start off into March, I wanted to share a few of the things I will be putting on my shelf this St. March!


I really enjoy the changing of the season and work. I'm the type of teacher that gets really bored with her classroom set up and materials, so if I get bored I know my children do also.

Here are a few items that I created for my classroom.

This is a piece of work that I made for my younger students so that they can start working on their visual discrimination. This is an extension that I placed in the Sensorial area. 

I created a counting work zero through ten with St. Patrick's Day pictures. I wanted the numeral and the name on one card with the counting pictures in the other. 

This following is for language, its a play on the Dice and Roll work we all know about. I wanted something more festive and for it to be more Montessori based Language. Most that I have seen are for sight words... which is great but I wanted different. So, I created pink, blue, and green series cards. For those who are saying "What the heck is pink, blue and green?" We like to divide language into sections pink: easiest level, consonant-vowel-consonant words (bob, sat, ran, red, etc), blue: blends that you can hear each sound and double consonants (frog, crab, bell, etc), Green: Special sounds and basically everything hard (make, church, shell, bird, rain, etc). 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Simply-Montessori 

I love this shamrock 'plastic' inset. It's older and I couldn't even tell you where I purchased it but its the best. 

Pin pricking shamrocks!

This beautifully drawn rainbow is amazing. I'm not sure where I got it from because I've had it a long time but all you have to do is google "rainbow color sheets". I'm sure you can find one just like it or better! I just love this one because it's simple and straight to the point.

Practical Life, my basic life skill friend. This area saves my butt multiple times a day with children who just can't that day or children that I just can't that day with. I sound like a horrible human being, huh but let's all be honest, some days we just can't. And you know what, that's okay! Because we may be teachers but we're still humans in the end. I need my coffee each morning and some days I just need a quiet and peaceful classroom, so that I can act like the graceful Montessori teacher that I really want to be. So, here are some things I did to help engage the tiny humans and help crazy children ease into the classroom.

Sensorial bin that I made for all my seeking children. I made all the colors at home, so easy to do!

Grating nutmeg, this is a great alternative to soap, because the nutmeg smells amazing! 

Solar System Work

I've had a lot of questions about how I made my solar system work. So, I thought this would be a good time as any to post about it.


First here is the final product:

When I was searching for rings, I couldn't find anything online or in the stores that would fit what I wanted. So, I went to Esty and started contacting shops that dealt with cutting wood pieces into shapes. I found one that I had used before for wood purchases. I contact Travis at LaserWoodShapes and he was great about it. He is so easy to work with, he could almost anything I requested and didn't charge me a special price! His shop is called LaserWoodShapes. I highly recommend him and NO I'm not getting a kickback from him. I just like dropping names, when I trust people to do a good job, no money involved. We are teachers we need to know who to trust because we don't have a lot of money to waste.  

Here are my order details, if you are wanting to order it also.

The first circle in the center is to be 2" in diameter, then nine other rings around that one, at 1" wide each. A total of 13 inches with a 1/4 inch thickness. 

This cost me under $15! That was a score for me as a teacher!

Then, I went to look for what to use for the planets. So, I went to Hobby Lobby (if you don't have one go online and order!) to look at the different wooden knob sizes. I purchased a range of sizes, the sun is the largest at 3 inches and the smallest is tiny! They cost me more than the rings because I had to purchase them in packages of multiple ones.

Then, I just googled the colors of each planet, I had acrylic paint already at home to use. I painted each one then sprayed with a clear coat, I prefer using Modge Podge clear coat but that's just my preference. I would think any clear coat spray would work just fine.

I spray painted the rings the color black, then flicked paint at them (this is messy use a cardboard box!) I clear coated that also. Then I was done! Super easy but a lot of time goes into this so it makes is hard in that sense.  I hope this helps everyone! If you have any questions, please let me know!

Happy Painting!