Montessori sewing and threading activity

This Montessori practical life activity is designed for 3-6-year-old children to guide them on how to lace using a thread.

Aimee Fagan, in her book Sewing in the Montessori Classroom, a practical life curriculum, mentioned that “The hand is the brain’s connection to the world around us. As our culture moves to be screen-based, we are struggling with how to help the children in our classes who have poor fine motor skills and motor planning. We have to engage children with materials that require fine movements and encourage them to use the mind and hand simultaneously”.

Montessori practical life activities help in the engagement of the mind and hand. These activities, such as sewing with a needle, scrubbing, cleaning, etc. are meaningful and help in building real-life skills.

Why does the Montessori curriculum teach sewing to children?

Montessori sewing activity promotes a unique skill that provides a visual milestone for children to see how they are progressing. In a Montessori classroom, a child is introduced to simple stitching activity, and later the complexity of the activity increases, such as sewing beads, lacing, embroidery, etc. 

It is also a self-correcting activity that helps them to see the error, i.e. whether they followed the correct pattern to sew. This helps them to go back and rectify the errors they have made.

Benefits of Montessori sewing activity

Learning to sew helps build a positive impact on a child’s character development. It also provides educational, physical, and mental benefits in an exciting and fun way.

  • It helps to improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
  • It helps in strengthening finger dexterity.
  • It increases focus and concentration.
  • It teaches children patience and dedication.
  • It boosts a child’s self-confidence and independence.
  • It helps in solving real-life problems like fixing buttons on the shirt, etc.

Perquisites of sewing activity

A child must know how to thread a needle and how to thread beads

Control of error

A child follows a pattern to sew and corrects if made an error.

Materials required for Montessori sewing activity 

  1. A needle
  2. A thread.
  3. A cutout with 8-10 sizable holes.

How to introduce the sewing activity to the child?

  1. Invite the child to the table and tell them, today we will learn how to sew using a thread.
  2. Introduce the child with the cutout.
  3. As shown in the video, show the child to pass the thread through one hole and followed it to another.
  4. As you progress, show the child how the thread makes a pattern when passes through the holes.
  5. Complete the sewing.
  6. Invite the child to try.

Watch the video to learn how to sew the cutout using a long thread. Invite the child to practice sewing.

Once the child masters the activity, let them use their imagination to create beautiful designs. They can sew buttons, fix their toys, or make a nice and original gift for their friend.

Related Resources

 

For more practical life lessons, click here.

Video created by: Joanne Shango

Tags

  • English
  • Practical Life
  • primary level