Sewing is a fantastic practical life activity for the Montessori classroom.
A Sewing Curriculum for the Montessori Classroom
If you’re looking for a comprehensive sewing curriculum for the 3-6 classroom, be sure to check out Aimee Fagan’s book, “Sewing in the Montessori Classroom: A Practical Life Curriculum” available on Amazon (where the Kindle unlimited edition is free!) Aimee also has a guest post on the Trillium blog with ideas for some easy sewing projects for children, along with a tutorial for how to thread a needle.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to put together a sewing sequence yourself, Montessori Services has some ready-to-use sets that are very handy!
The photos below were shared by members of the Trillium Community Facebook group. I’m sure you will find them as inspiring as I did! With my deepest appreciation to the contributors:
Afsheen Agha
Beth Bitts
Cathie Perolman
Joelle Moropito Huot
Kristin Anderson
Marla Beggs Nargundkar
Beginning Sewing Activities
Learning with a sewing paddle
Button sewing on a paddle
Cross stitch practice
Running stitch on round plastic canvas
Sewing with beads on paper
Button sewing
Advanced button sewing
Sewing Projects
Making a paper pouch
Making a fabric pouch!
Making a bracelet
Trace and stitch metal inset shapes
Stitching around shapes and embroidery
A Sewing Sequence for the Montessori Classroom
Cathie Perolman keeps her sewing materials at the bottom of one of her practical life shelves.
Top:
- Tray for lacing cards
- Supplies: yarns with “fake” knots (3/4″ straws and “fake” needles (masking tape wound around the tip of the yarn.)
- Supplies: construction paper cards
Bottom:
- Necklace sewing
- Yarn
Necklace sewing: yarn, needle threader, needle, 1″ squares of construction paper (great way to use up scraps), straw pieces, little pillow to poke needle through construction paper.
Card Sewing 1:
- Meat Tray cards (4″ by 2 1/2″ with 8 holes punched),
- Yarn rolled on a tongue depressor
- Needle threader, needle and scissors
Two color Sewing:
- Cards with shapes traced and hash marked to show where to poke for the holes
- Yarn on tongue depressors
- Needle threader, needle, scissors,
- Push pun pad, push pin.
- Child push pins at the intersections and sews a running stitch. Then he sews with another color to make an alternating color pattern!
Burlap Sewing:
- 8″ square of burlap.
- 6″ embroidery hoop,
- Scissors, yarn on a tongue depressor, needle threader, needle
- Thin black marker
The child traces a figure like a continent puzzle piece, a metal inset shape, or a shape from the geometric cabinet (or the teacher draws an object of his choice). The child stitches then around it.
Children often make multiple squares and they are turned into a quilt or display
Long long ago!
