Montessori Christmas Activites for Toddlers and Preschoolers
The Christmas season is a GREAT time to set up Montessori activities for toddlers and preschoolers. With items you probably already have lying around the house, or items that you can find cheaply at Dollar Tree, these activities are low-prep, budget friendly, and highly engaging. We do a lot of holiday themed Montessori activities in our home, but these just might be my favorite all year. So here are our favorite Montessori friendly Christmas activities for toddlers and preschoolers that you’ll want to do year after year.
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Stringing Jingle Bells
This kind of felt like I was setting up an activity for cats, but it one that both my toddler and preschooler enjoyed.
I set out ribbon and jingle bells in a basket. My preschooler liked the challenge of trying to get the jingle bell on the ribbon; I liked that it helped her work on her fine motor skills.
My toddler loved shaking the ribbons around once the jingle bells were hung up.Â
(And then she dove into the ribbons with such exuberance I wondered if she was part cat.)
Christmas Themed Sensory Bin
I love creating sensory bins, and a Christmas sensory bin offers so many options.
For ours, I tossed in jingle bells, adorable miniature ornaments, and Christmas colored pom poms. I grabbed my supplies at Dollar Tree or at Hobby Lobby where they have the tiny trees and kept it all super cheap.
For another idea, toss together wrapping paper strips, ribbons, and bows, and create a holiday wrapping themed sensory bin. (Besides- don’t toddlers love to play with the wrapping more than the toy half the the anyways?) I created this one after Christmas with our leftover wrapping supplies.
Sorting Christmas Ornaments
Using the same supplies I had in my sensory bin, I set out a sorting activity. With the miniature ornaments, I had my daughter sort either by color or by finish (matte or glittery.)
She also LOVED counting the ornaments as she sorted and she loved trying to use a scoop to move the ornaments.
Homemade Christmas Salt Dough
We love making salt dough here. To make it Christmas-y (and if you’re not planning on keeping it long), add in peppermint extract or some cinnamon for a rich sensory experience.
After creating the salt dough, roll it out and let your kids punch out shapes with some Christmas cookie cutters. (I grabbed my set in the Dollar Spot at Target to keep it cheap.)
Our favorite salt dough recipe is here.
Painting Salt Dough Ornaments
After you cut the shapes out of the salt dough, bake it at a low temperature until the salt dough has dried out. (Full instructions are in the recipe I linked above.)
Then once they’re cool, let your toddler or preschooler paint them with Christmas colors. I used Q-tips as paint brushes to keep it as easy to clean up as possible.
If you want to keep these as ornaments, you can glaze them with mod podge to prevent them from molding. (In the recipe I linked she also has a full explanation for how to do this safely.)
Dot Sticker Christmas Tree
I LOVE dot stickers (they’re so much easier to manage than dot markers.) For a dot sticker Christmas tree, simply print off a Christmas tree template or grab a felt hanging tree from the Dollar Tree.
Give your kiddo a sheet of dot stickers and send them on their way.
For toddlers, it’s great fine motor skill practice.
For preschoolers, you could challenge them to follow a certain pattern or make sure that they use an even number of each color on the tree.
Decorating a Wooden Gingerbread House
Cranky confession here: I can’t STAND gingerbread house kits. The stickiness, the patience required, the “what do I do with it now?”- it’s just not for me.
But I found this wooden gingerbread house kit at Michael’s that I LOVED. All of the mess of an actual gingerbread house? Gone.
My toddler loved scribbling all over the wooden pieces.
My preschooler LOVED painting it. It came with a small brush and all the colors you need, as well as craft glue to assemble it and pom poms to decorate it.
The teacher in me loved how it encouraged my preschooler to follow the instructions, take one piece at a time, and really focus.
If putting it all together feels like too much, I also grabbed these wooden signs from Dollar Tree that my girls painted and then hung on their doors for decoration. My preschooler used water colors; my toddler used the Crayola spill proof semi-solid paint and it worked like a dream.
Decorating a Wall Gingerbread Man or Christmas Tree
I’m not sure what it is about putting a giant piece of paper on the wall that makes kids eager to color all over it, but it does.
Roll out some craft paper and tape it up. Pencil the outline of a gingerbread man (or girl!), a Christmas tree, or a gingerbread house.
Christmas Muffin Tin Surprise
This one is definitely more for toddlers, but I couldn’t believe how much it entertained her. Using the same supplies from our sensory bin, I simply put different ornaments and jingle bells in a muffin tin and covered them with post it notes. She LOVED pulling off the post it notes and discovering what was inside.
For my preschooler, I had her help me set up the activity as a fun way to help her work on understanding the concept of one-to-one ratio and counting.
Christmas Sensory Bags
Having kids guess objects based on smell or sound alone is a great way to help develop their observation skills. In brown paper bags, drop in different Christmas-themed items such as peppermints, cinnamon sticks, and jingle bells.
Have your child shake and sniff all the bags and try and identify what is in each bag.
Christmas Sticky Wall
Another one more for younger toddlers, tape some contact paper (sticky side out) to a door or a wall. Then provide your toddler with Christmas colored pom poms, bits of wrapping paper, ribbons, etc. and let them stick it all to the wall. It’s like creating a 3D mural for them.
More Resources
And if you’re looking for more Christmas ideas, be sure to check out my post on our favorite Christmas books to read with our little ones as well as our favorite simple Christmas traditions to keep the season calm, cozy, and full of treasured memories.
https://www.gratefullygrounded.com/simple-family-christmas-traditions
