Our next topic was Geography. For this topic I had to prepare lots of materials, so today I wanted to share the details about one of them: felt continent map. The wonderful idea for this map came from montessorimakers group in Yahoo – thanks to Lisa and Sarah for an inspiration!!!
After we finished Botany, we jumped right into the Zoology. I was surprised by how much we managed to cover, diving as deep as the vertebrates/invertebrates! However, we’ll cover them in more detail in the next unit.
We are still using the same PPT presentation about all the things we’ve learned: Introduction to Biology, Botany and Zoology. Vertebrates/invertebrates deserve a separate presentation but in the meantime, let’s get going with the first social mingling in zoology…
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We started Botany last month and picked Zoology as our next topic. It really worked well for us to learn their introductory units one by one – so much in common! Though, it stretched a little – holidays, long weekends, flu… but we don’t mind – it is fun! We even have a new PPT presentation about all the things we’ve learned: 
Beading is an important part of Montessori teaching. Large beads are offered to toddlers to improve their motor skills. Small beads are offered to preschoolers to get them ready for writing. Beads – are part of sensorial materials for Montessori. Around four, mathematic bead materials are introduced. 
Astronomy is our subject of the week and I am gathering resources to make sure I don’t forget anything… 
Who said that size doesn’t matter? It does, when it comes to planet sizes. As we are learning the Solar System, I constantly chant: “Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System… Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system…” Yet, size numbers don’t mean much to a four year old. So, we did this project to try hands on learning on the planets sizes and their distance from the sun.
No matter how strange this seems to adults, practical life exercises are not only fun for kids, but also great for small motor development AND their brain development. Maria Montessori already wrote dozens of books on this topic, so I’ll just get right down to this one: combining Astronomy and Practical Life tongs activity!