These past few months at home have meant many things, but one of those was more time for shelf activities! Aiden is now actually 26 months and I always seem to be about a month or two behind in sharing these updates, but I still love to share what Montessori-inspired shelf activities we did at the time. When Aiden turned 2, the weather here was still pretty cold and unpredictable, so we were still spending more time inside and engaging with shelf work.
These toddler, two-year old times are some of my favorite (but if you browse some of my other posts, I probably say that at most ages). It’s such a formative time of navigating emotions, growing independence, and so much new skill discovery! At 24 months, Aiden’s favorites were definitely fine and visual motor activities and language activities. Here are some of the Montessori-inspired activities that were rotated on our shelves for him around 24 months:
DIY Bolt Board
-A wooden 2×4 board with holes drilled in, various bolts, screws, and nuts, and a larger screw driver. My husband made this Montessori-inspired DIY for Asher a couple of years ago and it is still a favorite! Perfect to use with the screwdriver or with little hands that are working on the twisting motion.
Mini White Boards and Puffy Stickers
-Mini dry erase board and Melissa & Doug reusable puffy sticker set (farm and safari are the ones we have). Aiden was getting into a positioning schema during this time and really liked transferring the stickers back and forth from the reusable board to the white board and placing them in specific positions
Montessori-Inspired Toothpick Posting
-Toothpicks and an old spice jar with lid
Beginner Pattern Blocks
–Melissa & Doug Beginner Pattern Blocks set. Such a great beginning set for building visual-spatial skills and reasoning skills for toddlers! One of our favorite Montessori-inspired toys.
Stamps in Circles
–Self-inking stamps, circle template pages. At around 24 months, Aiden moved away from enjoying stamping on blank paper to wanting to stamp within a set space. When I first observed this one day while he was working, I just drew rough circles for him on paper with a marker. That would be another great option instead of printing blank circles!
Gluing Circles
-Paper circles (punched out with a large circle puncher), half sheets of blank white paper, and a glue stick. A fun beginning gluing work for toddlers! This could be replicated with other options like different shaped paper punch-outs or a pasting bottle and brush instead of a glue stick. Larger paper punch-outs worked best for Aiden and his fine motor skills at this stage.
Shapes Puzzle and Peg Board
–Skoolzy Shapes Puzzle toy. Aiden got this for a Christmas gift and had a lot of interest in it around 24 months when I set it out on the shelf. This is another great Montessori-inspired toy that can be used as a shape sorter, peg board, and more. He really enjoyed stacking the shape pegs together to make a tower and naming the colors of all of the pegs.
Clothespins Peg Work
-Clothespins and a sturdy container to attach them to. Aiden worked on simply using a pincer grasp to open the clothespins and attach them to the sides of the container. This is a great activity for building finger-strength for future writing skills! It could also be modified by using different colored clothespins and different colored containers for color-matching too.
Shape Puzzle Pieces
–The Learning Journey: Colors and Shapes Puzzle. This set of two-piece matching puzzles are great for beginning puzzles and building color and shape vocabulary. I started out with just a couple of the puzzles (3 sets) and slowly added more as Aiden’s confidence grew. This one isn’t specifically Montessori-friendly as it does show puzzles and paint colors with faces on them, but this brand makes many other great options as well!
Mini Chalkboard
-Mini chalkboard (ours is from a set of wall square decorations), chalk, and a cloth or eraser. I didn’t include it, but a mini squirt bottle might be a fun clean-up option to include with this too!
Montessori-Inspired Color Matching
–Color box #2 tiles and Grimm’s Rainbow Friends dolls. I included just some of the basic colors of both the color tiles and the Grimm’s dolls. Aiden loved matching these when he was first becoming interested in color matching activities.
African Animal Object to Picture Matching
–Zebra, lion, lioness, giraffe, cheetah, ostrich, elephant, and tiger figures with DIY matching cards (free printable!) Aiden did some basic Montessori-inspired object to picture matching with some of these animals around 16 months, but at around 24 months we expanded the activity and focused more on naming the animals. You can get a free download of the African animals cards by heading on over to my subscription page or by using the form below. Signing up will give you access to the free printables library!
Beginning Sewing
-Embroidery hoop, linen fabric, plastic needle, and yarn. I love this activity for beginning sewing for toddlers! As long as the fabric has a looser weave, the plastic needles fit through really well. This was a great fine motor and practical challenge for Aiden in his Montessori-inspired shelf activities at 24 months.
Object to Picture Matching with Birds
–Safari Ltd. Birds TOOB figures and DIY matching cards (free printable). This rotated its way back onto our shelves! This activity is a great way to expand vocabulary for toddlers. See the whole Birds-Themed Discovery Unit we used these in last summer here. For a free download of the matching cards, you can sign up for access to the Free Resource Library below and the password for the library will be emailed to you.
Train Set
–Brio My First Railway Beginner Pack, Brio Rail & Road Loading Set, and a couple of other Brio sets. An open-ended play activity that Aiden loved so much around 24 months and continues to love. He received a couple more sets for his birthday and it’s amazing to observe him learning how to set them up and learning how the magnetic connections in the train cars work. This is definitely a favorite for both of the boys.
More Montessori-Inspired Matching
–Safari Ltd. Insects TOOB figures, DIY matching cards. A free printable of these bug matching cards is also available in the free resource library! Sign-up to get access to all of the free materials above.
Those are some of the Montessori-inspired shelf activities Aiden enjoyed around 24 months, or two years old. I think I’ll keep going with the month-based toddler activities so I can pretend he’s just a babe for awhile longer. Since baby number three will be here soon, get ready for some Montessori infant ideas to come!
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caressa walker says
I loved each idea, but definitely could see myself using the mini chalkboard in my sons room! The pictures were so nice and helpful!
Ceci Rey says
These are fantastic shelf ideas. Especially when the weather is not great or you just need an activity while inside. ๐๐๐ข
Raisa says
Love this! Can’t wait to try them!
Mamie says
These are helpful activities for little ones.
Homeschool Money Mom says
I loved this walkthrough Montesorri toy ideas! The plastic animals are one of my kids’ favorites! One of the most played with toys at my house. Ours are dinosaurs instead of mammals, though.
Maria says
Can you show a picture of your shelves please?
KMenko says
Hi Maria! Sorry, just reading your comment now. We just moved and don’t have any actual shelves setup right now, but I do have an IGTV video on Instagram that shows how the shelf setup was in our previous home. Their shelf space was in the living room and it was basically an infant Montessori shelf that my dad made and the bottom shelving of our coffee table. Making the most of our small space. ๐ The video is on my page @teacherandthetots and shows a bit of how things were set up. Hope that helps!