Tonging
Tonging in the Montessori Practical Life classroom is a very important activity to develop children’s hand and finger muscles. Children will tong different objects such as pom-poms from one bowl to another bowl. By tonging objects, they will practice and review what they have already learnt when spooning and pouring beans from the left bowl to the right bowl and sponging water from the left bowl to the right bowl.
Therefore spooning, pouring and sponging must be presented first to the child before the Tonging activity. With every new activity, the difficulty will increase.
Tonging Pom Pom’s from one bowl to another
How does learning to tong objects help the child?
This elementary exercise will indirectly develop the child’s pencil grip as we encourage the children to hold the tongs correctly. Crossing of the mid-line occurs in this activity and indirect preparation for reading and writing.
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Here is the full list of the Montessori tasks, including preliminary, elementary, applied exercises, and grace and courtesy. Just click on the activity you want to learn about to go there.