Often parents feel intimidated at the thought of buying expensive Montessori sensorial materials for home. Montessori sensorial materials are gorgeous, and it’s wonderful to have some. But it isn’t always necessary to buy them. At home, DIY materials work perfectly for many Montessori sensorial materials. I have a series of posts with DIY Montessori materials that include many sensorial materials. And color tablets are materials that are some of the easiest to prepare.
I put together a simple preparation and variation for Montessori color box 3 after observing my 3½-year-old granddaughter’s interests and then printing out graduated color strips for seashell color matching.
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Tray for Matching Shades of Colors of Seashells
Tray for Matching Shades of Colors of Seashells
Materials used:
- Montessori Services large plastic tray
- Dishes for seashells (The stainless steel shell dishes were from Montessori By Mom but are out of stock.)
- Spoon for spooning seashells (only needed for practical life spooning activity)
- Small Seashells (My seashells were from Montessori By Mom, but they’re out of stock; you can find your own seashells at the beach or order seashells from Amazon.)
- Color Grading Cards from Montessori Print Shop (available here in the Montessori at Home Book and Materials Bundle or individually from Montessori Print Shop)
- Cardstock for printing color grading cards
- Laminator can be used (For something like this, I don’t even bother to laminate the materials. For home use, just think about how much use or wear a material might get to decide whether or not you want to laminate the material.)
This was super easy to prepare. I just printed and cut out the strips for shades of brown, orange, and black to match the seashells I had.
Seashell Color Matching
Studying Colors and Patterns in Seashells
To begin with, I put out our seashell spooning activity for summer. Zoey did the spooning work. Then she spent a long time studying the colors and patterns in each seashell. (There happened to be 100 seashells in our spooning activity.)
After that, Zoey asked me to name the shades of color of each seashell. Yes, each of the 100 seashells. Have you ever thought about what you’d call each shade of brown, orange, or black??? But we came up with color names for all 100 shells. Then Zoey wanted to go through them all again. And again. Yes, we went through color names for seashells 300 times!
So, simple observation told me that we needed to extend the activity.
Matching Shades of Color in Seashells
The next time Zoey came to my house, I had the seashell spooning on a larger tray with the 3 color strips. For a child who’s already worked with color box 3, you could have the color tablets cut out individually and laminated for more permanent use. I’m using the color tablets with the seashells and as a preparation/variation for color box 3, so I left the tablets as strips with graduated shades of color.
We laid out the color tablets left to right from darkest to lightest. I pointed at each tablet first and said, “Darkest, lighter, lighter, lighter, lighter, lightest.” Then I said, “Let’s find the best color match for each seashell.” The Montessori Print Shop color strips worked very well, but there wasn’t always a perfect match. There wouldn’t be a perfect match for every shell with traditional color box 3 tablets, either. If there wasn’t, I simply asked, “What do you think is the best match?”It was interesting to see that Zoey had definite ideas where each shell should go, and each of her choices made sense.
This color matching activity could be used with a variety of materials, especially natural materials such as rocks and plants … perfect for using with materials found on nature walks.
Variations of This Activity (Not all are color activities.)
- Use a different tool to transfer seashells.
- Use only a few seashells to match. You don’t need 100! We just had 100 in our seashell spooning activity, and Zoey likes using them all for color matching.
- Use separate color tablets (printable or traditional) and first grade the color tablets before matching the seashell colors.
- Use 2 colors of tablets from Montessori color box 3 to match 2 colors on each of a few seashells. (See frog color matching by momducator on Instagram or {update} my butterfly color matching in my free summer printables and Montessori-inspired summer activities post.)
- Use 100 seashells with a Montessori 100 board. (See free printable hundred board activities here.)
- Count seashells to 100 (or however many seashells you use).
More Montessori-Inspired Ocean Activities
- Shells and Starfish Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom (the source of my original spooning activity)
- Montessori-Inspired Ocean Unit
- Montessori-Inspired Beach Language Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Resources for World Oceans Day
- Montessori-Inspired Ocean Math Activities
- Shark Unit Study
- Montessori-Inspired Turtle Activities
- Shells and Starfish Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom
- Free Shark Printables and Montessori-Inspired Shark Activities
- Shark Water-Bead Number or Letter Sensory Bin
- Farm, Zoo, & Ocean Animal Sensory Bottles for Babies and Toddlers
- Montessori-Inspired Toddler Geography Activities with Baby Beluga
- Coral Reef Kit and Sensory Bin
- Letters and Words in the Sand {Montessori-Inspired Beach Phonics Fun}
- Wonderful Whale and Water-Bead Sensory Bin {Free Printables}
- Seashell and Sea Life Nature Tray: How to Teach Vocabulary Using the 3-Period Lesson
- Free Turtle Printables and Montessori-Inspired Turtle Activities
- Free Turtle Printables and Montessori-Inspired Turtle Activities
- Free Turtle Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Turtle Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Seashell Color Matching {Easy-to-Prepare Variation of Montessori Color Box 3}
- DIY Coral Reef Water Table with Practical Life Activities
- The Ultimate Montessori-Inspired Shark Unit
- Free Ocean Printables and Montessori-Inspired Ocean Activities
- Free Ocean Songs and Educational Videos
- Free Relaxing Ocean Images, Sounds, and Music for Kids and Adults {Mindfulness Resources}
- Free Guided Ocean Meditations for Kids {Mindfulness Resources}
- Free Guided Ocean Meditations {Mindfulness Resources for Teens and Adults}
- Free Octopus Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Ocean Animal Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Non-Scary and Montessori-Friendly Resources for a Shark Tooth Dig
- The Best Ocean Books for Kids
- Ocean Unit Study Pinterest Board
DIY Sensorial Activities
If you’re looking for tutorials for making your own Montessori sensorial materials, I have a huge number of DIY sensorial material roundups.
This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Series 2017!
12 Months of Montessori Series – Sensorial
Check the posts below for a variety of sensorial activities (and some more DIY sensorial materials)!
- Montessori Sensorial Materials Every Child Will Love | Natural Beach Living
- Montessori Sensorial Album: Geometric Solids {Printable 3-Part Cards} | The Natural Homeschool
- Seashell Color Matching {Easy-to-Prepare Variation of Montessori Color Box 3}| Living Montessori Now
- List of Montessori Sensorial Materials | Mama’s Happy Hive
- Sensorial Learning at Home at 3-years-old | The Kavanaugh Report
- Montessori Geometric Solids as Sensorial Material | The Pinay Homeschooler
- 3 Easy DIY Montessori Mystery Bags | Uno Zwei Tutu
- Montessori Baric Tablets | Welcome to Mommyhood
Does your child have a favorite sensorial activity?
The color grading cards from Montessori Print Shop are part of the Montessori at Home Book and Materials Bundle (an amazing resource … and deal … for home use!
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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I love everything about this! Of course you did use shells so right there you won me over 🙂 Perfect!
Thanks for your sweet comment, Kimberly! We beach lovers have to make the most of it! 😉 Deb
What a great idea! I am actually going to be doing a beach/ocean themed activity and this will make the perfect addition. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Lisa at Dreams and Caffeine
Thanks so much, Lisa! I love beach/ocean themes … have fun! 🙂 Deb
What a super awesome and creative unit! Love it!
This is so adorable Deb! I hope to try the activities with Vito too 😀 Thank you for sharing!