Nativity of Mary: What's in the Workboxes and on the Montessori Shelves

We are in the midst of celebrating the feast of the Nativity of Mary right now, so I cannot take the time to take and post pictures, but I did want to share our works for the day in case anyone needs some quick and easy last minute ideas for workboxes or Montessori-inspired shelves.  Here's what we have been doing:

• Reading/Practical Life/Fine Motor:  Print out a picture of Mary, Joachim and Anne such as  (black and white version of this one) and write "Mary", "Joachim" and "Anne" below it.  Have child color the picture, cut out the names and glue the names on as labels.

• Math/Reading: Draw a candle-less birthday cake and the words," I am _ years old." above it  Have the child fill in the number for his/her age and draw the appropriate number of candles on the cake. Color in the cake, too.  Then, save th candles for use in a real or playdough birthday cake later on.
• Math:  Make a simple addition sheet and include candles for the manipulatives to figure out the problems.
• Art:  Use all or part of Life of Mary Cards for game time.
• Sensory:  Offer blue, white and yellow playdough, plus some beans and have children create their own baby Mary's to sing the happy Birthday song to.
• Cooking/Math:  Make the aforementioned playdough together using a favorite playdough recipe.
• Saint Study:  Print out or look at art work depicting the Birth of Mary.  Look at these for inspiration.  Then, create your own artwork depicting the birth of Mary and narrate a story about it.  Add it to a Saints scrapbook.
• Sensorial:  If you have knobless cylinders, take out the blue ones and use them, perhaps using some mats.
• Snack/Practical LifeAnd, of course, enjoy a birthday cake or Mary tea time.
• Movement/Sensory Diet Break:  Pull out M, A, R and Y cards from an ABC Exercise or ABC Alerting Activities card deck and follow them.  
• Faith Formation:   Take a break to enjoy beautiful artwork and a reflection about the day on youtube.

Now, I've got to get back to enjoying the celebration with my kids.

Enjoy celebrating the Nativity of Mary today!