We love Montessori! The amount and price of the beautiful materials can really add up, though.
I was determined to do Montessori in our homeschool, BUT I also got smart about saving money where I could.
I looked at what we needed and made two lists.
On the left, materials that we absolutely wanted but couldn’t make ourselves (to buy) and on the right, materials that we could make or collect ourselves over buying new.
Take a look at 10 Tips to Making Inexpensive Montessori Materials that can also save money.
At the end, you can get some Montessori Materials free downloads for you to get started.
Please remember to visit our resources hub for Montessori Curriculum 3-6 activities and lessons!

Montessori Curriculum Materials
Here are some great Montessori resources to get your wheels turning:
Montessori Color Tablets (3rd Box)Montessori Natural Cotton Work (No Finge) Rugs
Montessori Geometric Solids With Stands, Bases, and Box
Childrens Cleaning Set – Whisk Broom and Dustpan + Spray Bottle + Cleaning cloth + Scrub Brush + Sponge.
Montessori Lower and Capital Case Sandpaper Letters w/ Boxes
NDJK Montessori Sensorial Materials Tower Family Set Wooden Building Blocks Toy Kid
10 Tips to Making Inexpensive Montessori Materials
- Peruse thrift shops and consignment stores to find materials like natural wooden trays, small containers, pitchers, glass cups, etc.
- Look online or in the newspaper for any Montessori school sales or for any closing Montessori schools. Most of the time, they have items for sale at very reasonable prices. Also ask for special deals for bundling items.
- Collect magazines for continent and seasons folders.
- Find a used flag book to make a flags of the world album for Geography work.
- Use colored paper or construction paper to make your own arrows for the bead cabinet and for Math work.

Making Inexpensive Montessori at home Materials (cont)
The truth is that Sensorial materials as well as Practical Life materials are some of the easiest to make yourself.
Here are some examples:
- Buy a set of clean, used salt and paper shakers to make your own smell bottles for Sensorial work. If you get bamboo, wooden or metal ones instead of glass, you will find it beneficial because then the content (flour, garlic, coffee grounds, etc) won’t give it away.
- The salt and pepper shakers can also be used for sound boxes. If you get bamboo, wooden or metal ones instead of glass, you will find it beneficial because then the amount of pebbles or sand won’t give it away.
- Find a small wooden box with a lid and some inexpensive handkerchiefs, old clothes or other fabric materials with different textures to make your own fabric box. Basically, the box is about 6×6 inches, so the fabric squares are a bit smaller than that so they fit well inside. Cut out two squares for each fabric texture so the child can match them together. Color doesn’t matter, but it can actually help be the control of error.
- Look for small things like brushes and dustpans, droppers, tongs, brooms, mops, soap bars and graters, etc to set up Practical Life food and cleaning works.
- Get some paint chip samples for free at home improvement stores to make your own color tablet cards. You can also get wood flooring sample tiles that you can use to glue the colors in gradients like the Montessori work (box 4).

Free Printable Montessori Materials
What do you think?
Have you gotten some fun ideas to start your DIY Montessori adventure?
I know that not all work can be homemade, but you can certainly save a lot of money by making some of your own.
Here are some fun freebies to help make your Montessori life easier!
Take a look at our printable Binomial Cube and Color Tablet cards!
Enter your email below and check your inbox for the free downloads!
Enjoy!

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10 Things to know about teaching Montessori at home – Montessori Curriculum Free Download
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DIY Montessori 3-Part Cards Organizer {Tutorial and Printable Template}
Montessori Peace Table ~ Why Everyone Should Have One
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Victor braimoh says
What a great knowledge center.