We have been working quite a bit on botany activities and loving it!
The activity sets are wonderful for the botany puzzles, because they isolate the individual parts of a plant, seed, and root. There are many amazing blog moms who have made their own puzzles with felt, foam, or card stock. The activity sets can also be made fairly easily. They are black line copies of the puzzles with part labels.
Ava LOVES the botany puzzles - for her they are purely fun!
Xander is using the parts of a leaf puzzle here,
and examining leaves we collected and dried in the fall.
This is an amazing file from Montessori for Everyone called Botany Impressionistic Charts.
This is a 45 page doc. It can be made into a book, or print pages as you need them. We decided to read them right from the laptop at your work space.
The pictures and detail are gorgeous, and the information is beautifully presented and easily understood.
Xander really enjoyed it! We focused mainly on root systems, and photosynthesis this time.
Miss Ava checked out all the leaves, and also worked on tree matching for .69 cents - another great activity from Montessori Print Shop!
Working on the parts of a tree puzzle:))
Comparing leaves with the parts of a leaf puzzle.
We did lots of leaf rubbings!!!
I made the Parts of a seed puzzle activity mat for this puzzle. I traced the puzzle in pencil, and then black lined and laminated the mat (trace the middle pieces working your way out).
I found our 3 parts cards for this puzzle here for FREE and they match perfectly ...LOVE it!!
We used the labels from our 3 parts cards to label the puzzle.
Ava really loved the seed puzzle!
This is another of our favorites from the Cat in the Hat series all about seeds!!!
I created a nomenclature book from the 3 part cards, and information I found online here.
This Bean Seed nomenclature book came from Montessori Print Shop.
Comparing parts from the puzzle to his book.
The Giving Tree with CD
I have lots of work coming up on trees - there is another post to come!!
Above are a few gardening and plant identification books from my collection. We have since added some fantastic kids gardening books that I will share below.
! This was so much fun!! Now I will say that planting and caring for plants is not new to them- we plant a veg garden every year, and the kids care and help harvest throughout the season. But...this is such a fun thing to do, and you really get to see very closely.
Parts of a root - I don't have the parts of a root puzzle (may still get one), so I did this quick drawing on the computer - printed and laminated for Xander to label. Again we used our root 3 part cards (free) to label it and check work. These cards are from here and the nomenclature book again is from here.
Planting the seeds...
Adding water...
So amazing!
Xander photographs the growth and changes daily...so sweet. He has a drawing he made with check boxes, to check off each stage of growth.
They planted radishes, onions and carrot. Radishes are so fantastic because they germinate in just a few days!!
This is another great book to make from Montessori for Everyone!! This book is a FREE download and is so beautiful! I have seen this floating around many blogs and for good reason!
These nomenclature books are all from Montessori Print Shop - they are wonderful and match our puzzles perfectly. This is how I made them.
The cards above are part of a Garden Preschool Pack you can get for free here (scroll down the page).
I printed this pack for Ava, and have most of the activities in it waiting for her as she is ready. Below she is using the garden 3 part cards, and Xander is using the sentence and photo sequencing set above - they go with a book but we are using them simply for reading and sequencing for right now.
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I love this post! I love watching children in action with the works, your children definetly love all the work you put together for them. Thank you for linking to your resources, sharing how you put it altogether. This is great!! Thank you again.
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy you enjoyed!! I really try to include as many links as I can...I know when I'm looking around - it has been such a big help to me:)) I AWAYS enjoy seeing what you guys are up to:))
ReplyDeleteI thought I had left a message yesterday, but i guess it got los in the bloggosphere...
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your post. I love how much details you have included in this, I'll surely be coming back to it soon.
Please, link me to a post if you have already written about this, but how do you determine what Xander does during the week? Do you let him lead the way, or do you have some kind of planing that is done so you have an idea where you are going for a given week?
Thank you again!
I didn't get your message:(
DeleteI did do a post about it last night though... as I've been getting this question a lot:))
I'm glad you liked the post there is another Botany one coming:))
You take the most beautiful pictures - your blog is just wonderful:))
Thank you so much for mentioning our free "Plants" booklet download. It was fun to make and I love that kids are using it.
ReplyDeleteLori from Montessori for Everyone
Your materials are very beautiful and such a pleasure to use:))
DeleteAwesome unit and post, Cherine! What a perfect unit study for this time of year, and your activities are wonderful! I appreciate that you add so many links to your posts, too. And thanks for linking to my botany posts! I featured your botany posts at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
ReplyDeleteYou make me smile:)) Thank you Deb...I always pay you a visit for inspiration:)) It is so apparent your heart is in all you do:)) Thanks again:))
DeleteI am reading this late, but what a nice summary! I love the MPS materials too! Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
DeleteI loved revisiting your botany posts, Cherine! I featured your posts and your parts-of-a-tree photo in my Montessori-Inspired Arbor Day Activities post at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2013/04/22/montessori-monday-montessori-inspired-arbor-day-activities/
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb!! I really appreciate that!! I'll head over and take a look at the other great ideas you have posted:))
DeleteYour post is so amazing, Cherine! I featured it again! This time I featured your post and parts of a flower photo in my Montessori-Inspired Flower Activities post at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2013/05/06/montessori-monday-montessori-inspired-flower-activities/
ReplyDeleteThanks again Deb!! I will head over and check it out now!!!:)
DeletePlease forgive me if this is a stupid question - I'm fairly new to Montessori materials. The paper things you have that go with your puzzles - blank outlines, labeled outlines, etc. - did they come with the puzzles or are they separate products? And if they're separate where are they from? (You might have linked them already but I've not managed to sort out that that's what you meant.)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
I had the same questions!!! These are activity sets for each puzzle that come in a box set - 1 set is for plants, and the other is for animals. You can make these sets by tracing the puzzles and making the labels or purchase them from Kid advance or a few others. We used the puzzles very early and simply as puzzles, and some new vocabulary. Then we used them with the activity sets along with 3 part cards, and a little later with nomenclature books. To start we rebuilt and placed the puzzle pieces on the black line master. Then we used the 3 part cards to become familiar with (for example) the parts of a leaf. Then we would place the pieces and label them. These are great sets... but if I were to do it again I would just trace them and make the labels, as they are a little expensive. I did make our seed puzzle set this way. Hope this helps:)
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