Montessori Mom

"The hands are the instruments of man's intelligence." — Maria Montessori

Welcome to your very first Lesson of the Day! Today's adventure is brought to you by the letter A and a rainbow of colors. We'll start with a classic Montessori life skill — the pouring exercise — then dive into a beautiful color matching activity using the famous Three-Period Lesson. Along the way, we'll introduce the letter "a," make applesauce, create a torn-paper collage, and sing some fun songs. Let's get started!

🎒 Materials You'll Need

• 2 small pitchers (child-sized — a Montessori pouring set works perfectly)
• Rice or small beans for pouring practice
• A tray to contain spills
• Colored paper — red, yellow, orange, blue, green, brown, black, and purple
• 8 paper plates
• Scissors and glue stick
• Thin colored paper (newsprint, tissue paper, or thin construction paper) for the art collage
• A large sheet of construction paper (collage background)
• A square cake pan or box with sand, sugar, or cream of wheat (for letter tracing)
• Apples, honey, and optional crushed cookies or raisins (for applesauce)
• 👉 Small Glass Pitchers for Pouring on Amazon
• 👉 Adena Montessori Color Tablets (1st Box) on Amazon

🔎 Free Printouts

Use these free printable resources to extend the lesson:

• 📄 Ants Printout — Explore the world of ants to go along with our letter "A" theme
• 📄 Color Nomenclature Cards (English) — Identify and match colors
• 📄 Color Nomenclature Cards (Spanish) — Learn color names in Spanish too
• 📄 Color Word List — A handy reference for color words
• 📄 Gradation Cutout Cards — Practice ordering colors from light to dark
• 📄 Gradation Reading Cards — Pair color gradations with reading practice

🫗 Life Skills: The Pouring Exercise

Pouring is one of the very first Montessori Practical Life activities, and children absolutely love it. It builds concentration, hand-eye coordination, and independence — all while giving your little one the confidence to pour their own water at mealtimes!

How to Present the Lesson

Place one pitcher filled with rice and one empty pitcher on a tray. Slowly and carefully, show your child how to pour the full pitcher into the empty one. Let them try! When they've mastered pouring without spilling, you can graduate to water instead of rice — a thrilling milestone for a young child.

💡 Tip: The tray is key! It defines the workspace and makes cleanup easy. Spills are just part of learning.

🌈 Math & Reading Readiness: Color Matching

This is a wonderful way to teach colors and matching — and it introduces your child to the powerful Montessori Three-Period Lesson.

Preparation

On each of the 8 paper plates, glue a circle cut from one of your colored papers (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, brown, black, and purple). Then make 2 small tickets of each color from the same paper.

Activity: Matching Colors

Spread the paper plates on a clear area of carpet or a table. Mix up the colored tickets. Give the first ticket to your child and ask if they can place it on the paper plate that matches. Continue until all the tickets are matched!

The Three-Period Lesson for Color Names

Once your child can match colors, it's time to teach the names of the colors. Pick two colors your child doesn't know yet (for example, yellow and green).

Step One — Introduction

Point to the yellow ticket and say, "This is yellow." Point to the green ticket and say, "This is green."

Step Two — Recognition

"Give me yellow." (If your child can do this, move to Step Three. If not, go back to Step One.)
"Give me green."

Step Three — Recall

Point to the yellow ticket and ask, "What color is this?" (If your child can do this, the lesson is complete! If not, go back to Step Two.)

Add new colors each day.

✨ This Three-Period Lesson is at the heart of Montessori teaching. It beautifully breaks learning down into three stages: introducing the new concept, understanding it at a concrete level, and finally expressing it at an abstract level. Best of all, it's wonderfully positive — you never need to say "no" or "wrong." If a child struggles, you simply go back to the last step they knew.

🎨 Advanced Color Game

Find objects around your house that are the same color as the plates and see how many you can collect! Take the kitchen fruit bowl and match the fruit to the colors.

You'll discover different shades — dark green, lime green, grass green. Try putting the shades in order from light to dark! A large box of crayons works beautifully for showing different shades of color.

🎵 Song Time

You can sing this little color song anytime throughout the day! Just sing or chant:

🎶 "Ryan is wearing red socks, red socks, red socks — Ryan is wearing red socks all around the town!"

🎶 "Don is wearing a blue shirt, blue shirt, blue shirt — Don is wearing a blue shirt all day long!"

Substitute your child's name and whatever they're wearing — they'll love hearing about themselves!

🏃 Group Activity: Color Dash

Spread out the different colored paper plates outside or in a large area. Put all the colored tickets in a bag or hat. Pull out a colored ticket — the children shout the color and run to the matching plate! The first child to reach the plate gets to pull the next ticket from the bag.

As a prize, you can have colored lollipops or balloons for all the players. 🎈

✂️ Art Project: Torn Paper Collage

Tearing paper is a wonderful pre-cutting exercise that strengthens those little hand muscles!

Materials

• Thin colored paper — newsprint, thin construction paper, or tissue paper
• Glue stick or homemade paste (mix ½ cup cold water with 1 cup flour)
• A large sheet of construction paper for the background

Method

Let your child tear the colored paper into pieces, then paste them onto the background paper to make a beautiful collage. There's no right or wrong way — just enjoy the colors and textures!

🔤 Introduce the Letter "A"

Today we introduce the letter "a" with its short phonetic sound — like in "ant" and "apple."

Use the Three-Period Lesson:

1. Show the letter "a" and say the short sound: "ah."
2. Ask your child to "Point to the letter that says 'ah.'"
3. Point to the letter and ask, "What sound does this letter make?"

💡 Many children who already know letter names may feel confused when you focus only on the sound. It's perfectly fine to explain the difference between the letter's name ("A") and the sound it makes ("ah"). Some children like to use both!

Letter "A" Song

Reinforce the letter by singing to the melody of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat":

🎶 "Ah, ah, ah, the ah-choo sound — 'a' makes an ah-choo sound.
Ah, ah, ah, ah — 'a' makes an ah-choo sound!"

If this is easy for your child, add another short "a" word, like ant. You can also add another letter your child has been introduced to and practice with the Three-Period Lesson.

Sand Writing

Put some sand, sugar, or cream of wheat in a square cake pan or shallow box. Help your child trace the lowercase letter "a" with their finger. Say the short "a" sound as they trace — feel it and say it!

Alphabet Chant

Using phonetic sounds (not letter names), chant back and forth with your child:

You chant: "a, b, c" (using phonetic sounds)
Your child repeats: "a, b, c"

Work your way through the whole alphabet. Feel free to break it into smaller sections if the whole alphabet is too much at first!

🍎 Snack Time: Applesauce Surprise

What better way to celebrate the letter "A" than with apples?

1. Cut and peel some apples together.
2. Cook them for about 40 minutes or until tender.
3. Cool the apples, then take turns mashing them into applesauce.
4. Add a little honey to sweeten.
5. Put the applesauce in a cup and top with crushed cookies or raisins.
6. Eat and enjoy! 🍏

📚 Reading Aloud Corner

Here are some wonderful books about ants and colors to share together:

Ant Books

• I Wonder What It's Like to Be an Ant by Erin Hovanec
• The Ants Go Marching by Geoffrey Hays
• Ants in My Pants by Wendy Mould
• The Ant: The Energetic Worker by Cecelia Venn
• What Day Is It? by Patti Timble
• The Ant and the Grasshopper by Amy Lowry Poole

Color Books

• Gus and Button by Saxton Freymann
• What Color Is That, Piggywiggy? by Christyan Fox
• Favorite Colors by Marcia Leonard
• I Love Colors by Hans Wilhelm
• Red Hat, Green Hat by Louise Gikow
• The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown

🌎 Spanish Corner

Show a glass of water. Say the word "water," then the Spanish word: agua.

Have your child repeat: "¡Agua!" 💧

A lovely, simple first Spanish word — and one they can practice every time they take a drink!