Something new on the shelf and a surprise

It’s no surprise that I am absolutely in love with good quality, Montessori friendly culture materials. In fact I would cautiously argue that the Culture section of the 3-6 Montessori classroom is perhaps the most important of all the 5 areas.

So, when I saw that Waseca Biomes had just release their final Biome mat I couldn’t resist, because it also just happens to be the thing Quentin is madly in love with. 

We have loved Waseca Biomes for years after we first purchased their Celebration Sun and Seasons mat (you can seen Quentin using it here). We also use their Primary Level Introduction to the Biomes Curriculum (offered for free download here) but we hadn’t yet purchased any of their Biome mat materials (found here). That all changed when I saw the Antartica set. 

The cloth mat is extremely detailed. The 2 Part Card set it comes with matches exactly and Quentin had no trouble finding the place on the map with the drawing on the card as a guide. 

He loved reading all the cards to find the correct names and places. It was something he can do independently however even emergent readers could match many of the names simply by looking at the letter patterns, and the picture offer the control of error. Here he is double checking a particularly tricky name. 

The Ross Sea however, he knew. “That’s were penguins are Mama.”

The command cards that come with the set are divided into 3 levels of difficulty. Quentin does well with the first level and I’m glad that there is room for growth. As with all our materials, to help keep our home as minimalistic and clutter free as possible, we look for items that won’t just be used today, but for years to come. 

The Antarctica Portfolio seen in the second picture is a perfect companion. I will post separately on it as we delve into its activities but it is something that will be perfect for a geography and animal lover like Quentin. At 4 years old and a strong reader for his age, he can use the Set One card materials independently, only occasionally stumbling on a longer word. Because of this I feel the entire Antarctica set could be used with a 3 year old in an adult lead situation and increasingly independently from 4 years old. 

As a side note I laminated all the card materials because I will also use this in my 3-6 Montessori classroom, and I need the cards to stand up to 20 pairs of small hands, however if we were simply going to use it at home, I think I would have left them unlaminated.

This is a long weekend where we live and it has given Quentin extra time to explore with his penguins on the mat. I’m certain he will enjoy it for years to come. 
As an added bonus Waseca Biomes is offering free shipping on their products for US customers until March 12th, 2017 and free shipping of the Biome Portfolios at any time.

Oh yes, and the surprise. 

Waseca Biomes has graciously offered to sponsor our giveaway of one of their larger materials sets! The details will be announced at the end of February but we are so thankful to them and also very excited to extend this giveaway to all of our followers worldwide including free worldwide shipping on behalf of us. 
“The secret of success is found to lie in the right use of imagination in awakening interest, and the stimulation of seeds of interest already sown by attractive literary and pictorial material, but all correlated to a central idea, of greatly ennobling inspiration” – Maria Montessori