Montessori Activities for Europe (and Other Continents) – Trillium Montessori 7 Continents Bundle

Seemi of Trillium Montessori has published a 7 Continents Bundle … perfect for Montessori continent boxes or any continent work with young children. I’m sharing some ideas here of ways you can use this fabulous bundle.

Disclosure: I was given the Trillium Montessori 7 Continents A-Z Bundle to review for this post. I was never required to write a positive review, and any opinions expressed are my own. This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

7 Continents A-Z Bundle from Trillium Montessori

Seemi’s 7 Continents A-Z Bundle (go to link in the Trillium Montessori shop) is fabulous for any study of continents. I love that it can be used for so many different levels (preschool-grade 3) and for numerous extensions. Seemi uses high-quality images that would be attractive for any setting.

Seemi’s printables work well for both classrooms and homeschools, whether or not you use Montessori education. If you do use Montessori education, you’ll love that the printables are created by a certified Montessori teacher. They’re already Montessori friendly and don’t need to be adapted to work perfectly in a Montessori classroom or homeschool.

You can get ideas for using the bundle at the Trillium Montessori blog in Seemi’s “Learning about South America” post and Asia posts. Below, I’m sharing some ideas of activities that could be used for a study of Europe. They could easily be adapted for other continents using the applicable printables from the 7 Continents Bundle.

 

Here’s the description by Seemi of the 7 Continents A-Z Bundle:

This bundle includes the A-Z Montessori Packs for all 7 Continents.

It is suitable for PreK-1 but can easily be adapted for 2nd and 3rd grades as well. It features photographs and easy to read font. If you are a Montessori teacher, this will really round out your continent boxes and unit studies!

In all of my Continent A-Z packs, I have tried hard to provide a wide range of representative photographs in order to give students a sense of the luscious, rich diversity of our beautiful planet. Not only do these packs represent the diversity of the continent, but they also represent each letter of the alphabet.

The photos are of things ranging from animals and plants to biomes to clothing and food and sports. I often show iconic things like traditional dancers as well as average day to day things such as children and their pets. I do my best to avoid stereotypical images and try to touch upon many different regions and cultures within the continent.

The activities in this bundle are designed to be used by individuals or in small groups. You can use these card materials to introduce each continent to your students and then place them on the shelf or in centers for the children to explore. Montessori classrooms will be familiar with the use of most of these activities such as the 3-part cards and the “parts-of” nomenclature cards.

These printables work particularly well in a writing center. Students can examine the photos and write lists or reports about what they see. Younger students will enjoy matching the photographs and learning new vocabulary. This is also a fantastic pack to add to your letter work. Once students have learned the vocabulary, have them sort by initial letter/sound.

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Contents:

The possibilities for using a pack of this type are endless. Each of the Continent Packs in this bundle include the following activities

1. A-Z non-fiction book: Photos and short descriptions for things from that continent for each letter of the alphabet (short vowels). The Asia, Europe, and South America packs also include clipart versions of the book for low-ink printing.

2. A-Z Matching Cards: Photographs and one word labels. Print two copies to make 3-part cards or matching cards.

3. Phonetic Reading Sentences:9 phonetically decodable sentences each to go with pictures from each continent. The sentences do include a few basic sight words but the majority of the words are decodable and your intermediate readers will have success with these.

4. Living & Non-Living Sorting Cards:Photos of plants, animals, and natural and manmade landmarks from each continent.

5. Plant & Animal Sorting Cards:: Sort photos of plants and animals typically found on each continent.

6. Parts of an Animal: Make a set of 3-part nomenclature cards of animals such as the Lion (Africa), Toucan (South America), Kangaroo (Australia) Penguin (Antarctica), Badger (Europe), Turkey (North America) and Peacock (Asia). The cards also come with a book describing the various parts as well as a blackline master that can be used to make student booklets.

7. Biomes of each continent:Photographic 3-part cards of the various climate regions on each continent (except Antarctica).

Europe Activities Using the Trillium Montessori 7 Continents A-Z Bundle

I had fun putting together some possible Montessori trays using the Europe A-Z Printables Pack. I show some simple ways to display the materials that require a minimum amount of preparation for homeschoolers. These are materials that are easy to individualize for your classroom or homeschool.

Tray for Introducing European Landmarks

I love the Safari Ltd. Around the World TOOB and World Landmarks TOOB. (Note: You can find free TOOB keys in my Europe continent box post.) I used this tray as an introduction to three of the European landmarks. There are matching booklet pages and 3-part cards in the A-Z Bundle.

Seemi made the Europe materials red to go with the colors of the Montessori world map. The activity is on a Montessori Services large plastic tray. I like to use small tabletop easels often for homeschooling. I find they help me prepare activities very quickly yet are an inviting way to draw attention to a specific material.

Europe A-Z Matching Plus Booklet Making

For children who are very comfortable with their phonetic sounds, this would be a great activity for introducing alphabetical order. The letters could be laid out in alphabetical order and then matched with the A-Z cards for Europe (or whichever continent you’re studying). (Note: I used the same letters that I used  for my shark sensory bin in yesterday’s post). I added the printables from the A-Z Bundle that children can use to make their own A-Z booklet.

Phonetic Reading Sentences

This is another great extension activity. It consists of phonetic sentences about the continent with matching pictures. Seemi provides the sentences in both the continent color and in blue to coordinate with the Montessori blue box. The tray is a medium-size tray from Montessori Services.

Living and Non-Living Sorting Tray

I really appreciate that Seemi has living and non-living sorting activities for each continent.

Plant and Animal Sorting Plus Parts of a European Badger Booklet

Seemi also includes plant and animal sorting for each continent. She has parts of an animal 3-part cards and book featuring an animal for each continent. I added the parts-of-a badger book to the plants and animals tray. For homeschooling, I like to combine trays when possible to save space.

Biomes Matching Activity

I really like the addition of the biomes materials for older children. There are many ways you could prepare and introduce the activity. I used the two free map printables that I used in my Montessori-inspired continent activities – Europe.

For the layout, I simply laid the labels on the matching place on a political map. I would use the satellite map to show the relationship between climate and various types of terrain.

As you can see, there are many ways these beautiful materials can be used.

 

You can order the 7 Continents A-Z Bundle here.

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