Montessori Monday – DIY Geometric Shapes

The Montessori geometric cabinet and metal insets are among my favorite Montessori materials. They can be expensive for homeschoolers and environments other than Montessori schools, though. Fortunately, there are inexpensive alternatives.

Although the geometric cabinet is considered a sensorial material and the metal insets are a language material (preparation for writing), you can create materials that will work for both. Here are some great ideas from around the blogosphere for making your own geometric shapes that can be used instead of a geometric cabinet and metal insets. To isolate the difficulty, it’s best if you keep the shapes the same color and size, varying only in shape.

DIY Geometric Shapes and Supplementary Materials

Jenny from OurMontessoriHome.wordpress.com won the geometric cabinet in my giveaway sponsored by Alison’s Montessori. Before she won, she had started to make her own geometric cabinet. Here is her tutorial: DIY Montessori: Geometric Cabinet.

Noor Janan Homeschool has Geometric Shapes and Shelf (shelf made using a hot glue gun – no nails or screws).

Seedpod Craft Studio has Homemade Geometric Insets.

DIY Baby Stuff has DIY insets using mounting board covered with contact paper and a glued-on board pin for the knob.

Montessori Print Shop has free Triangles 3-Part Cards and inexpensive Geometry Cabinet Cards and other geometric materials.

Montessori Materials has free geometry downloads.

Montessori Mom has free insets for design printouts.

Geometric Shapes Presentations and Extensions

Montessori Primary Guide has Geometric Cabinet presentation.

Montessori World has Cabinet of Geometrical Plane Figures presentation.

Montessori Primary Guide has Metal Insets presentation.

Jessie from The Education of Ours has a post on Metal Insets, Lesson and Suggested Order and a post at Mommy Moment on The Aims of Metal Insets.

Umamah Learning Academy has a post with polygon 3-part cards and an activity making shapes with beads.

Montessori Mama has Metal Inset Art with examples and a free download of shapes and directions for creating an ellipse.

I have Montessori-inspired sticky paper shape sorting and counting for a fun variation for toddlers and preschoolers.

NOTE: See my DIY Montessori Materials post for DIY roundup posts for many Montessori materials.

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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