Montessori-Inspired Fun with Land and Water Forms

Welcome to the October Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival.

The Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival hosted by Science@home is for anyone, because we are all teachers and learners all the time. This month our theme is “Studies of Society and the Environment” which covers all the humanities, from history to finance, geography, politics and of course the environment. Check out the links at the bottom to find some other great posts on SOSE.

Land and Water Form Snacks and Cards

Whether you’re teaching at home or school, you can add Montessori activities for a geography unit on land and water forms. Not only are there hands-on materials children can work with, but there’s even a Montessori-inspired treat for an end-of-unit celebration.

In Montessori education, land and water forms typically include island and lake, peninsula and gulf, cape and bay, system of lakes and archipelago, and isthmus and strait. Children begin working with hands-on land and water forms from ages 2½ and up.

You can purchase ready-made land and water forms from one of the Montessori material suppliers, or you can make your own.

DIY Montessori Land and Water Forms

Here’s a very helpful post from What Did We Do All Day? about what not to do and what works in making your own landforms: How NOT to Make Your Own Geography Materials Part Three, Landforms (again).

Montessori Print Shop also has very helpful information and a free download: Make Land and Water Forms.

Here’s another set of homemade land and water forms from Shannon’s Sharings: Landforms.

Here are land and water forms from Walk Beside Me: Land and Water Forms.

Here are some land and water forms from Itsy Bitsy Spider that show variations on how they can be used: Land and Water Forms.

To make your own land and water forms, you’ll probably want to read each post and decide which way would work best for you.

Land and Water Form Extensions and Directions

Montessori Materials has some great land and water form downloads. Note: The land form cards donated by Tiffany are the 3-part cards I printed out and used for the photo.

Info Montessori has an introduction to Montessori geography, which includes how to present land and water form trays and cards.

Monteaco has a free culture album which includes land and water forms, cards, and definitions.

Leptir has helpful photos and printable cards for land and water forms. (Note: Use the Google Translate widget at Leptir to switch back to the original language – Croatian – if you want to download the cards.)

Montessori Print Shop has inexpensive land and water form cards and books.

Suite101.com has an article by Andrea Coventry with many activities for Montessori land and water forms, including having children create their own land and water forms with brown modeling clay in blue trays. Be sure to check out the helpful photos at the end of the article! Here’s another article by Andrea Coventry with Montessori land and water form definitions.

Still Parenting made land and water form cards from old coasters and foam board.

For the most thorough description of how to introduce land and water forms and activities to extend the study of land and water forms, sign up for my mailing list to receive the free American Montessori Society Geography Album by Karen Tyler. It’s a 177-page album covering Montessori geography activities for ages 2½-6.

When you’re finished with your unit on land and water forms, you can celebrate with a fun Montessori-inspired activity I found at Ashland Montessori School: creating land and water forms on graham crackers using blue icing. If you’d like a more natural version of the icing, blend together 8 ounces of cream cheese, ¼ cup honey, and ½ tsp. vanilla. Add blue food coloring, either purchased or a natural, homemade food dye.

UPDATE: I have a roundup post of easy DIY land and water forms.

You’ll find lots of ideas for Montessori land and water activities at My Confessions of a Montessori Mom Blog.

Have fun with Montessori-inspired geography!

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Visit Science@home to find out more about the Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival.

Please take the time to visit the other participants and check out their posts on “Studies of Society and the Environment.”

• The Planning Queen has pulled together some of the many great sources that you can use to keep kids up to date with world news.
• SMMART Ideas is writing about how your 2 year old isn’t too young to learn the names and locations of the state she lives in and those around her…or even countries of the world!
• For Adventures with Kids, photos can provide a great starting point for telling or discovering history, from family history to world history. Find out some questions to ask about the photos to get you started and where you can find historical images.
• Narelle at A Bunch of Keys has been having lots of fun learning all about volcanoes and how they work.
• Monique at Your Cheeky Monkey knows that kids are fascinated with igloos – how they are built and why they don’t melt. We investigate why!
• Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now has a fun treat to celebrate the end of a geography unit on land and water forms.
• At Homeage, almost every day they get another piece of the world delivered to their door, helping them learn about where and how other people live.
• Deb’s girls at Science@home have been building their family tree and talking about all their relationships.

Thanks for visiting our carnival, have fun reading all the posts.