movement shelf

A Montessori class is full of movement.

You want to do the pink tower?

After the child has placed his floor mat, he makes ten trips back and forth, between the work mat and the shelf where the pink tower is stored. If you count retrieving and returning the floor mat, the child will have moved through the room 22 times when he has completed the work. Not only does setting up any given work take a fair amount of trips through the class, most often there is no straight path to the shelf or to the table – there are other children’s floor mats, other shelves and tables in the way – the child must be able to coordinate his movement as not to step on any other child’s work or run into a table or shelf.

But what do you do when you see there is a need for more movement, especially during the morning work cycle?

You make a movement shelf.

Montessori Movement Shelf - montessori works

Yes, by default a Montessori class requires a child to refine his movements to be able to function in the class, and walking on the line is a wonderful work that enables the child to further practice and hone those skills, but, by providing actual movement works that are skill specific and can be practiced at any time, this is filling a need that needed to be met in our class late this spring.

My co-teacher and I had an extra shelf (how often do you get to say that?) that next year we have great plans for, but we weren’t using it yet. Another coworker attended a session at the AMS annual conference by Melani Alexander Fuchs, and raved about the ideas she presented and purchased the book, Movement Matters. And just like that, our movement shelf was born.

Since we started it toward the end of the year, and we are learning as we are going, we are keeping it simple. At group time on Mondays we present the new movement work and it is then available on Tuesday. We are also keeping the shelf to three total work options. Two of our current works are adaptations from the book, Movement Matters, the other two are our creations.

Jumping over the rope
Montessori Movement Shelf - montessori works

Materials

  • Floor mat (we found a large mat that was a different color than our work mats)
  • Two different colored circles, can be felt/plastic or any nonslip material
  • Rope that is the same length as the floor mat is wide
  • Basket to hold circles and rope

Presentation

  • Carry the floor mat to the work space
  • Go back to the shelf and bring the basket to the work space
  • Place the rope across the floor mat
  • Place a circle on each side of the rope
  • Put slippers in basket and put the basket to the side of the floor mat
  • Jump from one circle to the other

Variations

  • Hop on one foot to the opposite circle, using the same foot
  • Hop on one foot to the other foot as you jump from circle to circle
  • Place circles as far apart as possible (we did require that the children kept the whole circle on the floor mat)

Review:

We have loved this work. It has focused some of our most wandering children. It has provide a vigorous, yet controlled, movement practice. We have watched children jump, back and forth, for over 20 minutes. Has it been abused, yes, and we simply ask the child to show us the safe way to do the work, and if we have to remind them again, we ask them to clean-up and they can try again tomorrow.

Yoga

(sorry no picture – it is really hard to get a faceless picture when most the poses are seated poses!)

Materials

  • Towel (we are looking for an inexpensive yoga mat that we will cut for size)
  • Basket
  • Yoga cards – we are using Yoga Pretzels, are currently have mostly seated poses

Presentation

  • Take the towel from the shelf and unroll it in the work space
  • Take the basket with cards from the shelf and take it to the towel
  • Pick a pose from the basket, name the pose, and then demonstrate the pose
  • Return the card to the basket and repeat with remaining cards. We started with three and have about five to six now

Review:

This has not been as popular as the jumping work, but I think it has its place. It is a calming work, and a great work to offer to a child that seems unbalanced. There have been some lovely moments of watching the children pick the pose from the basket and then really work and try to match the picture.

Egg and Spoon Walking

Montessori Movement Shelf - montessori works

Materials

  • Two carpet squares
  • Two similar baskets
  • One piece of felt, about 1.5 – 2 inches wide, cut to a length you desire. Ours is about 5 feet long
  • A small basket that the felt fits in when rolled up
  • 3-6 plastic eggs
  • A spoon

We have our two large baskets nested together, with the eggs and spoon inside. Then the basket with the felt line sits on top of the eggs and the spoon.

Presentation

  • Take the two carpet squares to the work area, lay them an approximant distance apart
  • Bring the baskets with the eggs, the spoon and the felt line
  • Place the felt line so it connects the two carpet squares
  • Place the empty basket on the opposite carpet square
  • Put an egg on the spoon and walk slowly across the line
  • Put the egg in the empty basket
  • Walk along the line back to the first basket
  • Repeat for all the eggs
  • Repeat as many time as desired

Variations

  • Walk heel to toe
  • Walk backwards
  • Walk any other way you can think of

Montessori Movement Shelf - montessori works

Review

This too has been a great hit, and has been much harder than I think the children expected. This is a common variation for the traditional Montessori walking on the line, but it is available all the time in the morning work cycle, and can be freely chosen and practiced.

 

I do love the way the works we have presented have fit so many different movement needs, from vigorous jumping, to focused line walking and finally restorative yoga. Overall, the children have continued to be very respectful of both the works, and of the children doing the different movement works. The children are showing us that this was a need in our class at this time, and they are benefiting greatly from these works.

* As I write this on Sunday night, I have a Sit ‘n Spin ready to go out the door tomorrow morning. Right now, I am not really sure how it is going to work. It may have to be a stationary work, but we will figure that out tomorrow, and I will update this post Tuesday evening after the work has been put into rotation on the shelf.

Here it is Thursday, and I am just now updating this! Where did the week go? Well, we did make the sit ‘n spin a stationary work. We tried to put it in an area that was a little more isolated, because it was a pretty attractive/distracting work! 

It was a big hit. Many of the children didn’t have the basic hand over hand motion that you use when you do a sit ‘n spin. I think by the end of the week quite a few had picked up the motion, and the ones that couldn’t even spin themselves at the start, were at least able to do that. 

I do think we will bring it back next year.

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18 Comments

    1. They have really been great works! I am excited to get the shelf going earlier next year and see what we come up with!

    1. Hopefully I will have more ideas to share soon and next year!

    1. Thanks for sharing the post Deb! And, thanks for running such an awesome blog and facebook page where we all can find so many great ideas!

  1. Parabéns pela criatividade, fiquei encantada com a atividade!

  2. Hi Aimee,

    I love these ideas. My little one is 17months and we live in an apartment so this kind of activity would work so well for us. They are a little advanced for him at the moment, do you have any suggestions for modifications or alternatives?

  3. Wonderful ideas for movement within a confined space!!

  4. Hi Aimee!

    It was wonderful to meet you this weekend!
    I love this site!! You are an ispiration!
    I did create a facebook page for Movement Matters, but am having dificulty accessing it myself!!! Let’s keep in touch!!!!

    Melani

    1. Thank you for such a wonderful workshop! Callie and I planned our new movement works the entire way back to charlottesville.

      I love the Facebook page, I shared it with my followers.

      I would love to meet up I Dallas, hopefully I will have made some progress with my writing!

  5. Thank you so much for these wonderful ideas! I have a 2 year old who needs to burn some energy and it has been hard to get out in this awfully cold and stormy weather! Will try to implement some of your ideas in our home! Thank you!!

  6. This is my first year as a lead teacher, but my second year with a movement shelf. I love it, and I love these ideas! Thank you. I am also making my own balance beam this year by painting a 4×4. I have a hopscotch, tunnel, yoga mat, various line movement activities and am always trying to find and come up with new ideas. Movement is amazing!

  7. We stared doing a movement shelf in our classroom. Such a big hit. Any more ideas greatly appreciated.

  8. Hi, I really love your ideas and I believe children now more than ever need to move! Thank you so much for sharing. I would love to share a kids yoga program with you in case you are interested in adding more yoga and mindfulness for your students. Here is the website. Check it out! It has everything from teacher resources to products for your class to training opportunities for YOU! http://www.yoginos.com/location-directory/

    Have a great year!

  9. Thanks so much for sharing this! I am an montessori intern working on creating a movement shelf and these ideas are so helpful! 🙂

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