Transferring & sorting rose petals using tweezers

Roberta Frosolini
Via Montessori
Published in
2 min readMar 23, 2019
“The essential charm of a house is its cleanliness and order, with everything in its place, dusted, bright and cheerful…All the apparatus is to be kept meticulously in order, beautiful and shining, in perfect condition.” — Maria Montessori in The Discovery of The Child

The child uses fine tweezers to sort pink & red fabric rose petals into two small colored coded bowls.

Aim

The child enjoys an exploration of the topic of plants and an imaginative way to practice transferring with fine tweezers

Objectives

  • Develop eye-hand co-ordination
  • Develop fine motor control
  • Build their muscles for pencil grip
  • Develop concentration
  • Develop independence
  • Satisfy the need for order

Age

3+

Materials

  • Small basket
  • Pink and red rose petals for transferring and sorting
  • 2 small identical bowls, one red and one pink.
  • Tweezers
  • Plain tray

Control of error

The colour of the petals

Language

Appropriate vocabulary: red, pink, petals, tweezers.

Presentation

Before inviting the child, check that the basket contains only the pink and red petals. Then show the child the tray you will be working with and say the name of the materials.

Show the child how to use the tweezers, holding the two ends in between the thumb and the index finger. Press the two fingers together, bringing the two ends together until they touch, then release.

Choose the red petal and move it across the tray, loosening your hold to release it into the red coded bowl. Repeat this, putting the pink petal in the other bowl. Continue this way until all the petals have been transferred and sorted. Pour back all the petals into the small basket and let the child to have a turn.

Further challenges

  • Use a compartmentalized tray with more than two sets of colored petals.
  • Sort a variety of flower petals by various criteria, eg, shape.

Ideas

You may place and use this sorting exercise in the Life Skills area of your classroom whilst you and your children are exploring the parts of a flower.

The interest table shows the various parts of a flower: roots, stem, leaf, petals. Here a cyclamen plant is housed in a transparent vase, its roots clearly visible.

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