Montessori Land & Water Forms, Globe & 3 Part Cards Including DIY links!

Montessori Geography Land & Water materials are so beautiful and highly recognised.
The early materials are simple blue and brown silhouettes to isolate focus on the shapes of the land and water forms themselves during early work.

These materials can be expensive and in reality the majority of the materials are actually hand made by your children. Other materials found at retailers were added to the curriculum, but are not necessary to purchase though wonderful if you are able to acquire or make them.


The Land Water & Air early work starts with the land water and air activity and the introduction to the sandpaper globe. You can easily make and introduce this activity to your child.
 We created our own globe with an old outdated globe we found online.


The three dimensional land and water trays come next. The trays are beautiful and interesting though are not in our manual. The trays are actually created by your children with trays and clay.
They are presented in pairs of trays i.e. lake, island. One tray with the bottom filled with clay/plasticine, and the other either empty or with water for pouring.
The clay filled tray has the water element carved into it with a plastic knife, and is scooped out to reveal the water form. The removed portion is placed into the empty tray to create the inverse land form.


We created our own trays and you can visit this post to read more about how we made them. I must say though that our children absolutely love the pre made trays, and we have used them for sensorial play and exploration for quite some time.

The tray and clay activity also repeats and makes an appearance in lower and upper elementary as land and water form work becomes more in depth. You will find actual images of land and water forms for classification, added to this later more abstract work.






Booklets and definitions are introduced in elementary according to our Montessori Research and Development Manuals.


The most exciting way to explore land, water and forms is to get outside and visit local waterways or coastal areas if you are able. We have had some incredible experiences kayaking locally that sparked some amazing interest and discoveries.


Early exploration of physical geography sparks such interest that leads to limitless discovery for your child. This can be a gateway that opens to ecology and habitats, the geological timeline, and how the forms of our earth were created and most certainly history.