Montessori Inspired Activities for Earth Science

I am so excited to share our activity trays for Earth Day! This is in line with our 12 Months More of Montessori Series wherein we are focusing on Earth Science.  In this post, I gathered a few topics related to Earth Science, assembled them into tray activities that’s suitable for preschoolers from ages 3 years and older.  Hope you enjoy our activities for the coming weeks!

1.  ANIMAL HABITATS OF THE WORLD

Earth is made up of different habitats!  Vito and I will explore the general habitats around the world:  grasslands, deciduous forests, tropical rainforests, deserts, taiga and tundra.  We’ll be using the Montessori Inspired Animal World Habitats Learning Pack that I made to plot the animal figures from Safari Toobs.  We are starting to read the books of the Habitat series by Cathryn Sill which is our main inspiration for this activity.

Here’s a closer look of the picture.

2.  LAND, AIR, AND WATER CARDS

I downloaded these free printable cards from The Helpful Garden, saved me a lot of time to compose land, water and air image that we can use for sorting activity.  We had the animal sorting (Introducing Toddlers to Animals in Land, Water and Air) last year, so I decided to do another version.  I added samples of the land, water and air in small bottles to demonstrate these elements to Vito.

The cards are so beautiful, I highly recommend that you get a copy.  It helps to have samples, it’s easier to present the land and water because we can touch and feel them.  With air, it’s a whole lot different.  Though I left the bottle empty at this time, we’ll do more of “air” once we start this activity.

3.  RECREATING THE SHORELINE

My kids had a sudden interest in kinetic sand again, so I made some activity of designing their own shoreline with rocks and shells.  We’re using Safari Toob Shells here, because they’re the only one that fits in the small tray.  We’ll use our real shells once we have enough sand for an entire tub.

4. LAYERS OF THE EARTH

Earth Science wouldn’t be complete without a little exposure to the layers of the Earth.  By now, you’ve seen these activities on Pinterest and in some homeschool blogs.  I’ve done layers of the Earth (Layers of the Earth for Kids) with Mavi before but never attempted to try the playdough activity so this one is something new to me as well.  The image below is just from random Google search.  This will help me demonstrate to Vito what the Earth looks like if cut into half or so. The playdough that I use are homemade. You can check the recipe in this post "Fun Dinosaur Color Sorting with Homemade Playdough Recipe".

5.  LAYERS OF THE OCEAN

We were reading the book Oceans by Cathryn Sill the other day and this inspired me to come up with a short lesson about the layers of the ocean.  The blue graded water bottle will demonstrate the layers of the ocean, starting from the layer where there is sunlight down to the trenches (dark zone).  If you noticed, I didn’t add any labels yet, so as not to distract my 3 years old.  For now, we’ll just explore the concepts with the use of color coded water and the animals that live in those layers. I am using food coloring for the graded water bottle.

6.  EARTH PADS

Both boys enjoyed this activity the first time we tried it, so we’re doing it again just for fun!  They love looking at the cotton pads and designing their own Earth! You can use medicine droppers or disposable plastic transfer pipettes.

7.  LAND AND WATER FORMS THROUGH PLAY

We’ve been playing and working around with our transportation vehicles so I decided to use them with our Montessori Sandpaper Land and Water Forms cards.  This is a perfect opportunity to integrate the concept of land and water forms with the use of different vehicles to Vito.  It’s a hands-on activity, and more on play which makes it more engaging but educational at the same time.

Here are the fun ways that Mavi and I did in the past to study and introduce the different land and water formations:

• Introducing Landforms
• Land and Water Forms Learning Pack. Check how Mavi used the learning pack to help him form the different land and water forms using playdough.
• Landforms of the Arctic Circle and Antarctica   
• Lakes and Islands  
• Hands-On Learning on Land and Water Forms
• Montessori Landforms Cards
• The Glorious Flight {FIAR}

8.  LIFE CYCLE OF A PLANT

What is Earth without plants right? A simple activity and presentation of the life cycle of a plant is also part of our Earth Day activities.  Hopefully we’ll have the chance to grow some watercress again to go along  with our activity and to demonstrate an actual growth and cycle of the plant.  The figures below are from Safari Toob.  I’ll expand this activity once we start it. You might also be interested on how Mavi and I studied this concept in the past. You can check the post, Botany Unit: Plant Life Cycle and Photosynthesis, here.

9.  MAGNETIC AND NON MAGNETIC

Our Earth has many elements, and the reason why we’re not floating in the air is because of the Earth’s magnetic field.  And since magnetic field is a complicated topic for Vito, we’ll just start by identifying objects that’s magnetic and non-magnetic.  We’ll sort and test objects around the house if they are magnetic using our magnetic wands from Learning Resources.  This is a great activity to introduce the concept of magnetism to kids, because they do love to play with magnets!

So did you like our assembled activities?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section! Thank you for taking time to read too!

This post is part of the 12 Months More of Montessori which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.

Amazing blogs participating in the 12 Months More of Montessori that you should visit:

Teaching Kids About Pollution - Air, Land, & Water Pollution Printables | Natural Beach Living

Weathering and Erosion Printables (24 3-Part Cards) | The Natural Homeschool

Montessori-Inspired Phases-of-the-Moon Playdough Tray | Living Montessori Now

Montessori Botany: Parts of a Flower | Mama’s Happy Hive

Montessori Inspired Volcano Study | The Kavanaugh Report

Montessori Inspired Activities for Earth Science | The Pinay Homeschooler

Montessori Science: Fruit Dissection | Christian Montessori Network

DIY Agate Candy Slices: Candy Science | Sugar, Spice & Glitter

DIY Land Water And Air Jars With Free Printables | Uno Zwei Tutu

Water cycle and weather unit | Welcome to Mommyhood

Follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus, Instagram or Twitter for updates!  More learning materials at Pinay Homeschooler Shop.