Tag: animals

Posted on

Spring Animal Study Materials

The warmer weather has finally found us here in the Pacific Northwest and we have been loving some new Montessori compatible wooden materials that have been added to our nature shelves!

This new 5 part tray and Life Cycle of a Frog inserts have been on constant rotation! We love the large clear illustrations and how easily the inserts fit into the tray. You can see more of our use of it here on Instagram and we plan to add some figurines next week to it as well!

It’s a great addition to our 3-6 zoology shelves and we are lucky enough to be able to go out and see this life cycle happening right in our own community! So many of the local wet areas have tadpoles right now.

For the older child we love this sorting game as part of our nature study! The inserts fit into the same tray as the frog cycle which is fantastic for me as a teacher because I can just swap out the inserts and keep using the tray. So much easier for storage.

Quentin loves not only sorting but identifying the animal on each of the tiles. He ended up wanting to play a memory game by turning each of the tiles over and then having us say the kingdom we were looking for and try to remember where a tile of that kingdom was located.

When we were done everything packs away nicely into the bag it comes with and can be placed back on the shelves for another day. We are outside more and more this month and are going to see what other life cycles we notice.

Advertisement
Posted on

Sunday Book Club: Atlas of Adventure 

With the holidays finished we are back into our normal rhythms. That of course, means it’s Book Club time and this week’s books are gorgeous must haves for any Montessori home’s Non-Fiction Research/Reference section. 



The first book found here is absolutely stunning. It’s done in a completely different way then I have seen before and covers everything in its two page spreads from tigers in the Siberian snow, to humpback whales off the coast of Chile. 

The pictures are modern, clean lined and yet have so much detail. We are absolutely in love. 

The second, companion activity book found here is equally gorgeous. Sectioned into the continents it is a perfect at home workbook for any geography lover. So much to colour on each page and a large wall map and stickers are included. 

We purchased these books for a young Montessori friend’s 4th birthday, however on seeing their beauty and the ability to use them over the years with Quentin, I decided to order copies for our own reference materials shelf. 

Like anything else in our minimalist home featured here, we choose books extremely mindfully especially when purchasing them. Here are some of our “rules” for purchasing non-fiction books that fit with both a minimalist lifestyle but also (and much more importantly) a Montessori lifestyle: 

  • Books must be reality and science based
  • Books must be able to hold a child’s interest today, tomorrow and next year
  • Purchase a small range without duplicating a subject. We don’t need 20 penguin books. A really good one will last years and we can supplement the rest from the public library, although really we shouldn’t need to. 

Books about the world around us are some of the most important you can share with a child. A child is never too young to be exposed to that world. 

Posted on

Sunday Book Club: They All Saw a Cat 

“The cat walked through the world with its whiskers, ears, and claws. . .”


 

They All Saw a Cat is an fantastic new release about how different animals see the world. From a bird’s eye view to a skunk’s view of a black and white world, each animal sees the cat differently. 

So beautiful, fun and educational. There is also a deeper message. We each see the world slightly differently. But it is the same beautiful world. We can embrace our differences and be mindful of everyone’s unique view.