Fine motor skills Archives - Jellybeans

June 27, 2026

HOW TO is a series of short schematics to show you practically HOW (and why) we do Montessori things at Jellybeans Childcare

HOW TO #3: re-create a traditional terracotta community clay pit with twelve children aged ten months to four years old.

WHAT

KC from Cone Eight Ceramics in Hackney Wick and I - Rachel Lois Clapham, Montessori Teacher at Jellybeans Childcare - decided to devise a terracotta clay activity which mimics intergenerational kitchen pot making practices in traditional villages. To do this, we invited twelve children aged ten months to four years old into our outdoor classroom at Jellybeans Childcare to create their own terracotta chai cup.

FIRST

We started by handling balls of the rusty red-coloured terracotta. The balls were small enough to fit in a child’s hand, maybe a bit bigger than a ping pong ball. We then compared the terracotta balls to a piece of local clay that KC had sourced from the ground in Tower Hamlets. The local clay is much more yellow in colour than the terracotta. The children were excited to learn that the yellowish clay is the one that is under the ground they are standing on.

KC started with a demonstration on how to make a simple ‘pinch pot’ using a thumb and two fingers. This is a lovely, basic two handed activity in which the clay makes a full circle in your hand and as it does a very simple pot/bowl shape is realised.

MEANWHILE

Meanwhile, one of the ten month old children had found one of the slurry bowls - a creamy mixture of clay and water which is used as glue to stick clay bits together. The child was dibbling their hands in it and squeezing wet clay through their hands. A fourteen month old child had crawled over to a second slurry bowl and tipped the slurry out onto her own lap. She used her two hands to try and wipe the clay off her lap (not entirely successfully as slurry is very sticky and wet). Two two year olds were plopping their clay balls into one of the two water buckets for washing hands to see what would happen. (The balls start to dissipate in the water, turning the water very brown and changing the consistency of the water to quite thick. In effect creating a new slurry bowl).

THEN

We moved across the classroom to see what everyone else was doing with their clay- some two year olds were making clay finger paintings and handprints on pieces of big white newsprint that we had put down. Two of the four year olds were using wooden tools to score into the terracotta.

KC then demonstrated how to use little metal cups as a mould with which to make a simple clay chai cup. The method of cup making was to press a terracotta ball onto an overturned metal cup, and press it all around. We talked about what the children wanted their Chai cups to look like, and where they might put them in their homes. Some children insisted on adding a handle, and some wanted to put little clay ‘food’ inside their cup. Every child managed to use their own hands to make some form of cup. All the cups will later be fired in the kilns at Cone Eight Studio.

CURRICULUM

This activity generated lots of lovely EYFS hand strengthening, fine motor, sensory learning and mathematical reasoning opportunities. It also generated lots of positional / mathematical vocabulary. However, for me, the main Montessori take away is the distinct space that is created here for learning in a mixed age group of children.

Doing curriculum activities within one mixed age grouping of children and adults - could the grouping be called intergenerational in this context? - is what Dr. Montessori referred to as a ‘vertical grouping’ and it goes to the heart of what Dr. Montessori envisioned when she opened her first house of education for children in Rome in 1907; her ‘Casa dei Bambini’.

In terms of curriculum here at Jellybeans Childcare, I think about vertical grouping as a particular trajectory of education; children learning vertically across the age ranges. This is younger children looking, and learning, upwards from their position close to the ground via their witnessing the (taller) older children and their behaviours; seeing the bigger children’s cooperative play, their kind acts, their tidying up their classroom, their independence and self care. So too, the trajectory of the older children looking and learning downward, towards the (smaller) younger children; seeing their enjoyment of simple acts, seeing their vulnerability, seeing their need for care and - at times- the older children’s own role in nurturing or giving that care.

In terms of our Community Terracotta Clay Pit I also see a vertical grouping creatively; how it can provide learning for both children and adults of all ages, and how differently materials can be experienced critically within those different ages.

Cone Eight Studio - a pottery studio in Hackney Wick- https://coneeight.co.uk/

Jellybeans Childcare - Montessori inspired childcare near Canary Wharf

Published by Rachel in Early Years (EYFS), Fine motor skills, Montessori, Nursery activities, Sensory play, Toddlers (1–3), Under 3s

Tags: 2 year olds, 3 year olds, 4 year old, Community Clay Pit, Cone Eight Studio, early years, EYFS, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, Jellybeans Childcare, Montessori, seasonal learning, sensory play, Terracotta, toddler activities, under 3s, Vertical grouping, vocabulary building

March 28, 2026

HOW TO is a series of short schematics to show you practically HOW (and why) we do Montessori things at Jellybeans Childcare

HOW TO #2: Plant coriander seeds at an allotment with seven small children aged eight months to four years old.

WHAT

Today Adrian, Suzie and I (Rachel) took the children in the buggies to do a Montessori-inspired planting activity at the allotment on Mudchute Farm. You can tell it's a Montessori activity by the lesson I give to the children first as their Montessori Teacher (Diploma), and by the practical nature of the activity (everyone at any age having a go with their own hands) as well as the teaching of/isolation of the specific physical hand gestures.

FIRST

First, Adrian, Suzie and I invited the children to sit around the big picnic table on our family allotment - Plot 62- at Mudchute Allotments. We have baby chairs attached to the table so all the adults and children can be seated together and everyone is safe and comfy.

I introduced the idea of growing coriander from seeds; how coriander is a herb, and can be used for cooking, the seeds can also be eaten raw (the children then selected some of the raw seeds for nibbling- which is fine as they are all edible).

Then I demonstrated the steps involved in planting the coriander seeds- fill up the plant pot nearly to the top with soil using two hands (one hand pinching of soil, the other hand holding the pot). The younger children are mostly sat at the table playing with bits of soil and empty plant pots at this stage. 🙂

MEANWHILE

The older children focussed on practising their pinching and sprinkling hand movements in the air -without the soil and seeds. Then, after everyone had the hand movements right, everyone filled their plant pots up with the soil and pinched up the seeds and sprinkled them into the plant pots. Meanwhile the eight month old and the one year old children filled/unfilled their plant pots repeatedly but that's fine.

I then showed the children how to do a two-handed pour with a little watering can in order to water their coriander seeds. The older children are familiar with practising a two handed dry pour in our Practical Life activities back at the classroom. Some children opted for little water sprayers, but they were quite tricky to use with little hands. So anyone under the age of 4 years old used the mini watering cans.

After watering the seeds, then everyone was done sitting down and we left the table for a bit of a dig in the general digging patch and found some worms. We found some puddled rain water and the older children enjoyed washing some worms. 🙂

After we had finished, we all tidied up the trowels, plant pots, diggers and watering cans into the allotment shed then left to go back to Jellybeans HQ for some lunch.

The children were excited to take their coriander plant pots home and to begin doing their daily watering routine.

CURRICULUM

One of the key features of the Cultural Area in a Montessori classroom is nature; giving children the opportunity to experience and love nature, to tend plants in the prepared environment. In doing so, Dr Montessori hoped the child would learn about growth, natural life cycles, caring for plants and be able to have a practical impact on the world they see around them. So too, Montessori’s post war aim - her Cosmic Plan - was that young children themselves were the hope for the future: through education the children would carefully tend their world, grow new opportunities and live harmoniously and sustainably together, become gardeners of the future. As such, the British allotment is the perfect place for a Montessori lesson, and for the furthering of Dr Montessori’s cultural Cosmic Plan. 🙂

Published by Rachel in Early Years (EYFS), Fine motor skills, Gardening with children, Jellybeans Childcare, Montessori, Nursery activities, Outdoor learning, Practical life, Toddlers (1–3), Under 3s

Tags: care of the environment, Jellybeans Childcare, Montessori, seasonal learning

February 1, 2026

HOW TO is a series of short schematics to show you practically HOW (and why) we do Montessori things at Jellybeans Childcare

HOW TO #1: Get the front garden soil beds ready for planting potatoes with six small children aged 19 months to 3 years old

Planters in Jellybeans Childcare front garden

WHAT:

Adrian, Suzie and I invited the children at Jellybeans to do some gardening in the front garden, specifically preparing soil in our front garden planters for planting potatoes. The idea is that, instead of the flowers that have been growing over the summer, we will grow potatoes. Once the potatoes are planted, it means gardening and tending the potatoes is more easily physically accessed by the children on the days we don’t want to walk over to our allotment plot at Mudchute (Plot 62). Our yummy spuds will be right on our front doorstep to keep an eye on and water.

FIRST:

First, we took the six children out to our front garden and presented the activity to all the children simultaneously. We had all our tools, new bags of compost and several buckets ready. We talked about the soil beds and our plan to be planting potatoes next year, but that we first need to get the planters “ready” by removing existing flower bulbs and weeds, and adding new compost. Adrian says the “weeds” are plants in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Adrian and I demonstrated all the hand movements the children need to do with the mini trowels and garden forks. To remove the existing bulbs it’s: “dig in around in a circle, and then lever out”. To pull the weeds it’s: “pull on the green bits at the bottom”. To turn over the soil it’s: “push in with the trowel, and turn over with the wrist”, so the old soil flops up to the top. This attention to, and isolating out, of the gestures is a very Montessori thing.

MEANWHILE:

Meanwhile, the two year olds have not quite got through the full briefing and have already started getting tools and doing little digs in the soil. The three year olds have listened patiently and work together to pull big handfuls of weeds out (with moderate success). The 19 month old is pottering nearby with the buckets.

Adrian, Suzie and I started guiding the children to pull up weeds, dig over the soil and place the flower bulbs carefully in the small buckets. The 19 month old enjoyed scooping handfuls of new compost into the planters.

CURRICULUM:

In terms of our curriculum, this activity gives us the opportunity to enable the more obvious physical aspects of fine motor skills, tool control, hand to eye coordination and transferring of materials from one place to another. The children will also benefit emotionally from the sensory nature of their hands in the soil. And all the children are offered a wide range of new vocabulary and language regarding the tools, the actions and the materials, as we describe various things such as “plant”, “potato”, “weed”, “pull”, “turn”, “wrist”, “trowel”, “soil”, “more”, and “less”.

However, what is perhaps the most powerful aspect of Montessori learning here is that of the children’s own impact upon nature and culture. The children enjoy a practical, real-world example of growing plants in their own natural environment. They will be taking care of, and responsible for, the food they will eat next summer. With such acts of care in the natural environment, and I don’t think Maria Montessori was being metaphorical here, the children can contribute to the Cosmic Plan that she envisioned: children ultimately tending and healing our world.

Montessori’s Cosmic Plan is no less aspirational than gardening with six under threes. We look forward to hopefully eating some lovely organic home-grown potato wedges in Summer 26.

Published by Rachel in Early Years (EYFS), Fine motor skills, Gardening with children, Growing food, Home–nursery connection, Jellybeans Childcare, Montessori, Nature and seasons, Nursery activities, Outdoor learning, Practical life, Sensory play, Sustainability, Toddlers (1–3), Under 3s