What fun we are having in the classroom this month!

To celebrate  the beginning of spring, we have incorporated activities exploring the life cycle of the butterfly, frogs, and chickens.  We have also been working with a loose- parts style Parts of a Flower activity.   In the art room we have been making bird nests and painting cardboard eggs for an egg garland.  

Montessori Connection

Nature-based learning is a pedagogy that we have been learning more about as of late.  At first, we thought this only pertained to schools that spend the majority of the time outside.  Our research led us to investigate and question the ways we incorporate nature into our Montessori Classroom.  Our perspective has also been expanded to consider the relationship with the elements and how earth, fire, water, and air are experienced in the classroom.  Some of the activities we have that are nature- based include:

  • Our Botany Cabinet which contains 3 drawers of leaf shapes.  These are traced with a stylus and vocabulary is introduced.  This material inspires matching leaf shapes of the plants in our environment and from outside our classroom.

  • Classification Cards for example:  Types of Clouds, Types of flowers, Things you find in a garden

  • Flower arranging

  • Washing the leaves of a plant

  • Land and water forms