Montessori-Inspired Antarctica Shelf for Preschoolers

For me January is the best time to introduce kids to the animals of the arctic or of Antarctica.  They can pretty much relate to these animals due to the extreme weather we are experiencing during the months of winter, which makes its peak in January.  And since our 12 Months MORE of Montessori Series for January is to feature Winter Themed activities, I’m featuring simple ways you can do to introduce the continent of Antarctica to your preschoolers.   Now, I’ve done this almost every year with Mavi since he was 4 years old, and I’ve realized that somehow I might have gone overboard with the topic (used a lot of unnecessary materials).  So for Vito’s first exposure to Antarctica, I wanted it to be simple, quality over quantity. 

 

A Penguin Project for Mom and Kids

Oh I am so happy how these turned out!! The boys and I enjoyed making these penguins using simple art materials.  It took us around an hour to finish everything (with a stubborn preschooler) and we were totally blown by the result!  This art project was from Deep Space Sparkle, one of my favourite artsy website and my go to for painting projects. 

World Map Jigsaw Puzzle Recommendations

We love our Montessori continent map puzzle and world map jigsaw puzzle at home.  Mavi is loving the Europe and Asia map puzzles while Vito is using the continent map puzzle. Though quite big, I love that they are inexpensive and well made.   You can get all of these Montessori puzzles in any Montessori shop, mine was from Absorbent Minds UK and Tower High Learning.  Now, I know some of you don’t have any access to Montessori shops.  And because I’ve been asked a lot on where and what to get as alternative, I decided to come up with a list of world puzzles that I like and I feel suitable for our homeschool in the absence of Montessori puzzles. 

The Montessori Short Bead Stairs: Learning About Quantity

Vito is 38 months old.
This is a Montessori math activity on teaching the child about quantities from 1 through 9. We’ve worked on this since last year (starting from 1 to 5) and has been doing a lot of extensions.  This is a simple presentation of the work and I’m sharing some of the extensions we’re working on as well.