Blogger / 25 September, 2026 / Nanny Anita

Shelling Peas Montessori Activity

Shelling peas is an excellent practical life exercise for children.  It helps build those fine motor skills and independence.  It can also be a way of introducing a food to a child that doesn’t like to eat peas.

Make sure you follow my toddler activity board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To do your own shelling peas activity you will need:

• Peas in the pod*
• 3 bowls
• A tray

*I used sugar snap peas for this activity

Place your three bowls onto a tray and fill one bowl with the sugar snaps or peas in a pod.  One bowl will be for the peas that are shelled, and the final bowl will be for the leftover pods.

As NC has never done this before, I showed her how to shell a pea.  As I am trying to foster a more Montessori approach with my activities, I didn’t talk her through the process.  I simply demonstrated it from start to end.  Then I passed the activity over to her.

Her first question to me was “can I eat the peas?”  I knew that she would end up eating them.  She used to love eating peas when she was little, but in the past 6 months she has really gone off of them.  While the point of the activity was not to get her to eat them, it certainly was a positive side effect.

This activity was also meant for her to do alone.  Rarely though do my activities go completely as planned, which is fine.  While she did shell her peas by herself, she was also keen that I took part in the activity too and kept giving me sugar snaps to peel.

Obviously, after we had finished the activity, she ate all the peas.

If you enjoyed this shelling peas activity, be sure to check out my acorn sorting, and pom pom blowing.

Pin for later: