How to Create a Montessori Treasure Basket

(Plus- ideas for treasure basket themes AND activities to Use With Them)

A Montessori-style treasure basket is one of the simplest (and cheapest!) things you can create for your baby and toddler to foster language development, sensory exploration, and fine motor development.

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What is a Montessori Treasure Basket and What Are the Benefits of Them?

A Montessori treasure basket is simply a basket filled with a few items (usually about 5-7 objects- fewer for babies and more for older toddlers) that are typically connected by some sort of theme. (Sometimes you’ll see them referred to as vocabulary baskets or language baskets.)

And even though it is so simple to put together, the benefits are INCREDIBLE.  Your little ones are free to explore using their senses, work on fine motor skills, and in the process- are having a fantastic opportunity for language development.

The other thing I LOVE about treasure baskets is that they can really grow with your children.  You can easily adapt the baskets and the activities to go with them to continually challenge your child as they grow into the preschool years.

(If you’ve read anything on this blog, you know that I LOVE activities that are simple, cost-efficient, and adaptable.)

What Ages is a Montessori Treasure Basket For?

You can theoretically start these as early as you wish, but the benefits really begin when a baby can grasp objects (or at least track them with their eyes.)

We initially started with just a basket of different colored and textures balls when my daughter was a couple of months old.  We would place the basket in front of her during tummy time to keep her engaged.

HOWEVER, you’ll really see the benefits take off once your child is independently grasping and picking up objects- even better if they’re sitting up on their own (at about 6-8 months.)  At this age they’re using all of their senses to explore the world, so make sure your basket doesn’t include any choking hazards.

And then you’ll REALLY see the language benefits at around 15 months (give or take) when young toddlers go through a language explosion.  At this point they’re able to move into picking up specific objects and learning their names- even if they can’t vocalize it yet.  15-18 months is probably my favorite age to really use language baskets with.

However, these can definitely be adapted to older toddlers and even preschoolers as well (more on that below with activities!)

Easy Montessori Treasure Basket Theme Ideas

So you want to put together a simple Montessori-style treasure basket.  But where do you start?  Keep it simple!  

In the early toddler phase, toddlers are just trying to make sense of the world around them.  So think of everyday items or animals that they might be interested in.  Also, think about adding in different textures if possible to further enrich it. 

The sky’s the limit with themes, and you really don’t have to go out and buy new materials for these baskets.  But if you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a few ideas for Montessori-inspired language baskets that our own daughters have loved:

Kitchen Theme

I don’t know what it is about kitchen utensils, but babies LOVE them.  My girls just absolutely gravitated towards them.  (My youngest even constantly crawls around with a toy spatula in her hand!)

So set up a treasure basket with kitchen items- either real or toy (although if you’re going with real- I recommend soft items so that they don’t hurt themselves while gumming them or crawling off with them.)

Toss in some prep bowls, a whisk, measuring spoons, and a spatula and they’ll be hooked.  (Even better- use this as something to include them with you while you cook- check out my post here about including littles in the kitchen from birth to the preschool years.)

Food (Real or Fake)

Kids LOVE play food.  Again- I’m not really sure what the gravitational pull is, but it’s definitely there.  So set them up with a few food items (either play or fake) to explore.  You can group them by food groups OR have your toddler sort them (see below for more activity ideas.

Animal Figurines

Babies and toddlers also naturally gravitate towards animals.  Grab a set of Safari LTD Toob animals or larger figurines and add them to a basket.  Keep it simple with just a few animals that you can find OR create themes based on what they’ve been doing lately.

Just went to an aquarium?  Get some marine life animals for their treasure basket.  Have a zoo trip scheduled soon?  Grab some wild animals.  Camping and hiking on the calendar?  Forest animals.  It’s spring and there’s baby farm animals everywhere?  You get the idea.

Nature Items

There’s such a soothing aspect to exploring items found in nature- and even babies and toddlers seem to really enjoy it.  Toss in pine cones, rocks (that are large enough they can’t swallow), and leaves.  

You can do this a couple of different ways:

1. You could go on a nature walk and collect the nature items yourself (if you have older children, this would be a great way to involve them.)
2. OR if you want to limit the stickiness and dirtiness (or you don’t live near an area where it’s easy to find a lot of natural items), check out a craft store.  Michael’s tends to have items like artificial pinecones and branches.

Color Themed

If your older toddler is starting to really notice different colors, make a basket themed around one color.  For example, you could make a red treasure basket with a real apple, a play tomato, a red fall leaf, a red bean bag, and a bottle of red glitter. 

Take things from other treasure baskets to put this together without having to buy anything new!

Toiletry Items

Toddlers love to explore what YOU’RE doing.  So instead of them trying to grab your toothbrush out of your hand while you’re actively brushing- set them up with a bathroom themed treasure basket.  Toss in a clean toothbrush, an empty travel sized bottle of soap, a washcloth, and a baby hairbrush.  Just make sure that everything is safely sealed up!

Seasonal or Holiday Themed

I LOVE tying our learning to seasons and holidays and Montessori treasure baskets are some of the first places I introduce that.

 (As toddlers I also start bringing in seasonal or holiday themed sensory bins, and by the preschool years I’m bringing in seasonal and holiday themed discovery boxes for holistic learning. Be sure to check out my section on seasonal learning here.)

Toddler-Safe Art Supplies

This one is a “maybe” for me.  Art supplies can stress me out with toddlers.  However, if you have an older child who is CONSTANTLY crafting, a treasure basket for babies with craft supplies just may prevent them from diving in and destroying their older sibling’s work.

So occasionally I’ll set up my daughter with some safe craft supplies that she can’t choke on or chew- large bottles of glitter (if you really have a mischievous one you can hot glue the lid shut or wrap heaving duty packing tape around it, pieces of felt, pipe cleaners (maybe with the ends tied up so they don’t poke themselves in the eye, ribbons, and pieces of yarn.  This is a great one to really fill with a lot of different colors and textures.

Activities to Do with a Montessoir Treasure Basket

Ok- so now that you’ve created a treasure basket for your little one, what do you actually DO with it- and how do you keep it engaging as they grow?

Let Them Explore

This seems so simple that I think it’s often overlooked, but Montessori style learning emphasizes the value of children being able to freely explore on their own.  

Let them look at each object at their own pace and really become familiar with what you’ve placed in the basket for them.

This is especially important the younger the child is.

Conduct a Montessori Three- Period Lesson

A three-period lesson is a foundational way of teaching information to children in a Montessori style. And it’s so simple! It really just boils down to these three steps:

1. Name the object for them.
2. Ask them if they can pick up the specific object you named.
3. Ask them to name the object.

Clearly these steps may not all be completed in one sitting and with children this young, they’re MEANT to be spread out over MONTHS. So as babies, you’re simply naming the objects for them. (And be sure to use the correct name to maximize their language development!)

As young toddlers, they’ll be able to point to certain objects long before they can vocalize the words themselves (this is my favorite stage- I LOVE realizing what words they know even if they can’t speak.)

And then once their language development takes off- suddenly they’ll be naming everything in the basket.

But the trick to a three-period lesson is to keep it fun, engaging, and lighthearted. Don’t treat it like a quiz- treat it like a game and a bonding experience.

Matching to Language Cards (Get Your Preschoolers Involved, Too!)

After they master matching real objects to one another, they’re ready to match to images.  This is where you can introduce simple language cards (just images of the item with the word underneath) and have your child lay the object on the language card.  

This is also a great activity for preschoolers and can be a great way to help them work on phonics and letter recognition.  (I’m also currently working on creating language cards for different treasure basket items, so be sure to sign up for emails if you want to be notified when those are available!)

Matching to Other Identical Objects

So from here, I’m veering off a bit from the typical “language development” activities that are the heart behind treasure baskets. However, you’ve already gathered the materials for the basket- you might as well find other ways to use them!

As they enter the toddler phase, you’ll see them start to match up items more.  Matching is such a critical skill for a lot of future academic work, so this is a great and easy way to let them get a lot of practice with the skill.

If you have two of the same objects lying around the house, add them to the sensory basket and see if they can match them.  (One easy way to do this would be with the food theme or the bathroom items theme.  Give them two of each object in the basket and see if they can match.)

Matching real objects to each other is the first step in learning how to match.

Matching Small Versions to Larger Versions

After they’re matching identical objects, try mixing up the sizes to give them a new challenge. This is a great activity to try with animal themed treasure baskets.  Add in large and small animal figurines and see if they can pair them up.  

When my daughter was about two she would always pair animals up saying it’s a mommy and a baby!  Awww!!!” Safari LTD is great for this as they make larger versions and smaller versions of the same animals.

Arranging By Size

Older toddlers will also start to line objects up instinctively.  Prompt them to arrange objects in order of size and see what they can do with it.  For this, you could easily use a nature-themed treasure basket with various size objects.

Categorizing by Type

Again, another great one that can be scaled according to age.  Give your child a treasure basket and a tray with dividers and have them sort by type.

For littlest ones, you could do something simple like sorting real food from play food or sorting by color.

For preschoolers, you can really use this to start introducing more in depth concepts like sorting animals by reptiles or mammals.  (This is also a great way to let your kids of different ages learn side by side without having to create all new learning materials for each kid.)

There’s so many different ways to create and use a Montessori treasure basket for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.  They are by far some of our most favorite things to include on their shelves.  

I hope there’s an idea here that you want to try out with your own little one! And be sure to sign up for emails to stay updated with any future Montessori inspired learning activities!