Montessori-Inspired Continent Activities with Animal Figures – South America

I love Montessori geography activities for giving young children hands-on experiences in world geography. I also love Little Passports Global Adventure for adding extra interest to a study of the world. And I love Safari Ltd. replicas for their realistic detailing and for adding interest to themed learning activities.

Disclosure: Safari Ltd. gave me the TOOBS and poster used to prepare these activities. My opinions are honest and my own.

For this post, I used the Safari Ltd. Rainforest TOOB, Insect TOOB, Butterflies TOOB, Venomous Creatures TOOB, Exotic Birds TOOB, and Monkeys and Apes TOOB. Every replica in the Rainforest TOOB can be found in the South American rainforest. The other TOOBS contain animals from a variety of continents. If you’re planning a world study, you’ll find it helpful to have the other TOOBS for a number of activities as well.

The activities in this post work well in conjunction with a Montessori South America continent box. (Note: I made the background of the collage pink to go with the pink South America on the Montessori world map. ;)) These activities could also be used for a study of South America before (and after) the Little Passports Brazil package arrives.

Obviously, South America is a very diverse continent with much more than a tropical rainforest climate. Safari Ltd. has a wide range of animal TOOBS that fit in with various climates. Just adapt your activities to the level of your child or students.

Printable Keys: Thanks to Kateva from Safari Ltd. for the educational keys for each TOOB! These are very useful not only for simple matching activities, but also as a way for you to keep your TOOBS organized and for older children to use as keys for research or for organizing the animals in the proper TOOB. If you click on each link, you can save and print out the educational key for each TOOB: Rainforest TOOB Key, Insect TOOB Key, Butterflies TOOB Key, Venomous Creatures TOOB Key, Exotic Birds TOOB Key, and Monkeys and Apes TOOB Key.

A simple activity would be to have a tray with the animals from the Safari Ltd. Rainforest TOOB and a satellite map of South America. You can download and print out a free South America satellite map from Wikimedia Commons.

Note: You can omit the red eye tree frog if you wish. Some prefer to keep the red eye tree frog only in Central America. I kept it in the South America animals because National Geographic says the red-eyed tree frog is “found in tropical lowlands from southern Mexico, throughout Central America, and in northern South America.” For this activity, a young preschooler can just place the animals on the map without focusing on where on the continent they would be found. For an older child, you could discuss the location within South America.

A young preschooler could just learn the names of the animals and arrange them on the South America map however he or she chooses. As in this photo, the animals wouldn’t be placed where they actually live on the continent. It would still be helpful for the young child to have this hands-on activity to help identify rainforest animals and the shape of South America.

Another simple activity to prepare would be to have a young child match the Rainforest TOOB replicas to the educational key (see above) for the Safari Ltd. Rainforest TOOB.

If you have a rainforest poster, you could use that to place animals on the poster. This could also be the basis for an elementary-level research project about which continent each rainforest animal is from.

Preschoolers could be given some rainforest animals from South America that they could match on the poster according to type of animal.

A tray with the Insects TOOB, Butterflies TOOB, Venomous Creatures TOOB, Exotic Birds TOOB, Monkeys and Apes TOOB, and Rainforest TOOB (with keys either on the tray or in another location on the shelf) could provide a thorough hands-on study of rainforest animals either with or without the Tropical Rainforest poster.

Have you used Safari Ltd. TOOBS for South America activities?

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