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.
You can get more guidance about how to set up your sewing sequence with Aimee’s online short course, Sewing in the Classroom
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!
