Our Favorite Nature-Based Spring Activities

As soon as Spring emerges, I find it hard to stay inside for long. Especially since having children, I have a new appreciation for witnessing nature “come alive”. From the bright flowers to the tiny insects to puddles, there is always something to explore. It’s always a reminder for me to slow down, and to get down to my children’s level, to simply appreciate what is growing and living around us. As we spend more and more of our days outdoors, these are some of the activities that are keeping us busy as we welcome Spring.

Planting Seeds - Though I don’t have much of a green thumb, I am drawn to gardening this year especially, as we spend our first Spring in our new home. We went to the garden store together and selected seeds that we thought would be interesting to watch grow and fun to harvest. I used the Old Farmer’s Almanac to determine when to start planting seeds. Our hope is to grow a few vegetables and herbs for cooking, strawberries to enjoy on hot summer days, and wildflowers for attracting butterflies and flower arranging.

Gardening/Weeding - There is so much to do in the yard beyond planting! To help keep our plants growing, the kids can help me water, weed, and eventually harvest our vegetables. We found these toddler-sized gloves and other garden tools at our local gardening store!

Flower Identification - It is much more fun for the children to have names for each flower as we notice new blooms in our own yard and on our neighborhood walks. To help them with identifying, I printed off these Spring flower cards by Little Spark Company. Though they can be used for matching or 3-part-cards indoors, our favorite use for them is identifying and matching in nature. Last year, we also made our own wildflower cards for our walks in the forest!

Flower Arranging - The children have loved using flowers from our own yard (or even bouquets I’ve purchased at the farmer’s market) to make flower arrangements in vases. D uses scissors to clip stems and both of them place the flowers in small vases to add to the dining table, their low table, or a coffee table. It’s a lovely way to bring a bit of spring inside. This year, D also helped me plant and arrange flowers in a pot for our porch!

Flower Pressing - To press flowers using a flower press, the children either collect flowers from the garden or petals from the ground while we are out on a walk. It takes a few weeks for them to completely dry, but once dried, they can be used as an art addition or framed for display! For a more immediate reward, check out a sunprint kit to create flower and plant designs on photosensitive paper.

Bird Feeders - Adding a bring feeder to our backyard has brought an impressive number and variety of birds. Last year, we made these DIY orange feeders which we look forward to making again soon! My children love refilling our other bird feeders and watching the birds come and go throughout the day.

Bird Identification - Once we have our bird feeders up this year, we will observe and take note of the types of birds that visit it. Being able to name each type of bird is empowering and fun for the children. We love this book as a field guide for identifying backyard birds.

Farmer’s Market - Our local farmer’s market starts back up in the Spring and it is our favorite place to go on the weekend. It is such a great opportunity for the children to hear live music, support local farmers and makers, and meet new people. We often learn something new about where our food comes from!

Scavenger Hunts and I Spy - One of our favorite ways to mix up our daily walks is with scavenger hunts or “I spy”. I draw or print out a card with various pictures of items to find as we walk. This depends on the season, but in Spring I might include types of flowers, insects, and other things like a white fence or a dog. D also really likes to play “I spy” where we trade off by saying “I spy something blue” or “I spy something that starts with “/b/” and try to guess.

Puddle Jumping and Boot Scrubbing - Rain is a big part of Spring for us, and one that we welcome! The children love nothing more than splashing in puddles. When their rainboots get muddy, no problem! This creates a fun outdoor practical life opportunity. We fill up a big bin with soapy water and some brushes, and let them clean them off again!

Bird-Themed Activities for Toddlers

One upside to this shelter-in-place life is a newfound appreciation and connection to nature. While I intended to make birds our theme for a week, it has been our theme for the whole month, because we are both enjoying it so much! Even after spending the month learning about the many types of birds in our region and beyond, and we’ve only touched the surface. Here are some of the activities that my toddler (almost 3 years old) has really enjoyed this month:

Making bird feeders

We tried a few versions, but our favorite and most child-friendly version was making it out of an orange. This is how we made them:

1. Halve a large orange and juice with a manual juicer (or a spoon) - bonus was D got to drink fresh-squeezed juice!

2. Measure out 6 pieces of twine, each the same length, to hang the orange feeder.

3. Poke three holes along the edge of the peel (we used a wooden skewer).

4. Insert twine into each hole and tie a knot. Then tie the three pieces of twine together.

5. Mix birdseed and peanut butter (enough PB to make it stick together).

6. Scoop the seed mixture into each orange half.

7. Hang outside and wait for the birds to enjoy! The birds have loved this for over a week now.

Birdwatching binoculars

As we’ve been seeing so many birds come to our yard via the birdfeeders, we needed some “binoculars” to get a clsoer look! :) I saw a version of these on Pinterest and knew we had to try. To make the binoculars, we used two empty toilet paper rolls, construction paper, tape, coloring supplies, a hole punch, and twine. I used thin strips of construction paper and double sided tape to line the edges of each roll, but washi tape would work great too if you have it! D colored a larger piece of construction paper and then helped me wrap and tape it around the two rolls to keep them together. I then hole punched the edge of each roll and tied on a piece of twine so she could wear them around her neck on walks. She has loved wearing these around for our walks around the neighborhood.

Bird Nests

To go with one of our favorite little board books, Nest, we made two kinds of nest. One from coconut fiber and one from homemade playdough. We took a long walk in the forest and found all kinds of treasures to add to our nests. D was really excited when she found something "the birdies will love". She spent a morning and afternoon filling her nests with all her treasures, making them "nice and comfy". She found a spot in one of our trees for the coconut fiber nest, and maybe pieces of it will be used by the birds. The playdough allowed for a fun, indoor version. She helped me make a batch of playdough and she set right to work again, filling it with her forest treasures. She also enjoyed setting up her colorful, counting birds and these artificial eggs in her nest. The playdough version is fun because she could unbuild it and re-build it as much as she wanted.

Bird identification

As I have never been a birder (until now), we both needed some help identifying all the birds we’ve been seeing! It took some trial and error to find resources for the actual birds we are seeing in our region of the world. Our favorite book has been the Woodland bird call book, which allows us to match the picture with the bird call, as well as learn a bit more about each bird. The most useful way to actually visually identify the birds has been a website and app called iNaturalist. Their website also provides a chart of common local birds in your area which we printed out for walks and bird-watches in our backyard. Lastly, I printed and laminated this beautiful print by Birds and Friends of Washington State birds.

Bird Matching

We can’t have a theme without some classic Montessori matching. As usual, our go-to language objects are the toob figurines by Safari Ltd. I found matching bird cards from Montessori Nature. Object to picture matching is an activity she’s enjoyed for over a year, with it being as easy or challenging as the objects we choose. I also love these beautiful bird and egg matching cards from Fiddlesticks Education. While D is too young to match the birds to eggs on her own, it was a fun activity to talk about together, as we compared and contrasted the different birds and eggs and colors.

Bird Parts puzzle matching

This bird puzzle is D’s very favorite puzzle right now. I first just put the puzzle out with the pieces in a small basket for her to complete. Once she mastered that, I printed off the bird body part cards from Montessori Factory. The cards and puzzle are a fun way to learn a bit more about birds, and what makes them unique!

Songs (I typically sing these myself or play audio rather than show her youtube video):

Robin in the Rain

Five Little Chickadees

Little Bird, Little Bird

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The Tiny Seed Theme for Toddlers

For the foreseeable future, we are homebound and homeschooling. For me, this has meant a lot more planning, structure, and purposeful or themed activities. As I wrote in a recent Instagram post, I don’t believe toddlers need themed or pre-planned activities. They can thrive on open-ended toys, practical life, and DIYS from whatever household items you can find. They thrive on routines and parnets who are present and engaged. But planning these activities keeps things interesting and gives me purpose when we are stuck in the confines of our home. This in turn, makes for a happier mom, and happier kids.

Our theme this week has been The Tiny Seed, based on the classic book by Eric Carle. Our more general theme is learning about how plants grow! As I do NOT have a green thumb, I've learned a bit along the way too! Here are some of the activities along this theme that we have enjoyed this week.

Planting Seeds, Beans, and Bulbs

Toddlers (and children of all ages really) learn best from concrete, hands-on materials. It is much easier to grasp a new concept when they can literally grasp it in their hands.

“What the hand does, the mind remembers. ”

— Maria Montessori

To introduce the theme of seeds and how plants grow, we planted our own seeds and beans. Because it has still been quite cold here, and I am terrible at keeping indoor plants alive, we started with planting a bean in a jar. This has the added bonus of getting to see the growth through the glass, and fast too. Next week we will plant some cosmos or zinnias in our yard as well. We also planted a few garlic cloves in an indoor pot, and are hoping for some garlic greens to grow! D has loved watering her plants and checking on their progress each day.

Seed to Fruit/Veggie Matching

This is another great hands-on activity that gets all the senses involved! We picked out a few different fruits and vegetables with visible seeds, and opened them up for D to explore. Then she helped pick the seeds out of each one, eating the edible ones and composting the others. She enjoyed learning about the seeds, but also the fine motor work of picking out the small seeds and enjoying the fruits of her labor. :)

Seed Life Cycle

After planting our bean and watching it grow for a few days, we compared the growth to these green bean life cycle manipulatives. 3D objects are always more useful in learning new terminology than pictures, but real live plants are the very best!

Seed/Bean Shakers

We of course had to include something along the seed theme for baby brother, and this one involved both kids! D sorted five kinds of beans/seeds/pods into small spice jars. She screwed back on the lids and picked out a basket to put them in for S. S loved shaking them and making different noises with the different shaped/weighted seeds. Super simple and fun!

Parts of a Flower Felt Board

To go with our favorite seed songs, I created this felt flower scene to learn parts of a flower (tulip, namely) and what flowers need to grow. This felt board has gotten a lot of use over the last year, and I can create all kinds of felt shapes and animals from this stack of colorful craft felt. D has been enjoying giving “lessons’ to his brother with this flower felt board.

Pea Pod Counting

I had seen similar counting boards with food on Pinterest before, and thought doing a seed-themed one would be cute. I went with pea pods, as they are a familiar and favorite food for D. I made these by cutting and drawing on construction paper and then laminating. I have attached the scanned copy here if you’d like to print the PDF to use. You can have your child count with real peas, or like we did, use playdough peas that I rolled (and she helped). Just don’t expect those play dough peas to stay peas for long!

Flower Arranging

This has been a favorite for a year now. She especially enjoys flower arranging with the little wildflowers we pick on our daily walks. Yesterday we found a field full of daisies, and when she insisted on bringing more than a handful home, I knew we’d be in for another afternoon of flower arranging. When she was first doing this activity, I set out just one small vase, but now she divides the water and flowers into three vases or jars. She enjoys displaying them on her windowsill!

Favorite Songs

D loves doing this one called “Be a Seed” from Jbrary as a full body movement song!

Favorite (or Recommended) Books

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

We are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines

Botony for Babies by Jonathon Litton

From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of these links, you won’t pay anything extra, but I will get a small commission, which helps keep this blog going. Thanks for supporting Montessori in Real Life!

Valentine's Day Activities for Toddlers

Valentine’s Day may be a Hallmark holiday, but we enjoy it as an excellent excuse to express love and gratitude, and a reason to talk about kindness and friendship. Not to mention the sweet activities for children that go along with it. You can check out my post last year for some ideas and board books for young toddlers. The following activities and books are best for 2-year-olds and up!

Mailbox Valentine’s - This has been D’s favorite Valentine’s activity. She absolutely loves collecting our mail, seeing the mail delivery person, and going to the post office with me. I gave her a simple set of Valentine’s cards, envelopes, “stamps” (stickers), and a marker. The little mailbox came from Target Dollar Spot. She was so intentional about writing on each of her cards and sealing it up to put in her mailbox. Next week we will make some real valentine’s cards to send to friends and family too!

Heart Beading - Beading and lacing has become a favorite of D’s, and this was no exception. I love these heart beads by Melissa and Doug. The set comes with 5 laces that are easier for small hands to use to thread on the beads. I cut the strings to make them easier for her to work with, and set out a smaller set of the beads too. She was much more interested in beading as many beads as possible than actually wearing her jewelry!

Pom Pom Sorting - I like that this activity combines practice with tongs as well as sorting. D mastered this one quickly, so I’ll have to find ways to make it a bit more challenging with different size pom poms! This sorting tray can be used for all kinds of activities as well. The small tongs are also a favorite for serving snack with.

Tea Time - This is an afternoon ritual for us, to sit down and sip tea, golden milk, or some other beverage together. She serves up our plates and pours us each our “tea”. (I set it up for her at her kitchen beforehand.) She loves taking ownership over this and always makes sure my cup is refilled! :) You can find a simliar tea set here!

Heart Matching - I saw something similar on Pinterest, and had to try it with these foam hearts I already had on hand. All I did was cut each heart in half in a different pattern. This would be trickier if you used the same color hearts, but this was still a nice little challenge for D. She had the idea of adding these little wooden hearts on top of each one! ;)

Heart Stamp Playdough - This playdough recipe from I Heart Naptime is just the best - oh-so-soft. I make a batch of playdough at least once a month and it stays fresh in containers or ziplocks. With some fun new tools from Target Dollar spot, D has had a lot of fun making heart “cookies” with stamps. It’s so fun to see how she finds new ways to play with playdough each time!

Love to Pieces Gluing - This was another Pinterest-inspired art activity, and the template is from Little Learning Club. D helped me rip up some colored construction paper and then used a paintbrush and Elmer’s glue to cover the heart. Super simple and fun, and what toddler doesn’t love glue?

Love and Friendship Books - If you have a baby or younger toddler, check out last year’s blog post for board book ideas. This year, I focused on some picture books with the theme of friendship, love, and kindness towards others. In My Heart (as with all the Jo Witek books) is just beautiful. D loves the rainbow of layered hearts, and I love the vivid descriptions of all the ways a heart can feel. It’s great for giving toddlers more words to express themselves. Love is is D’s current favorite. It tells the story of a little girl who finds a lost duckling and takes it in, but also realizing when it’s time to let it go free. As parents, you’ll love the familiar story of raising your own baby. I purchased I Am Love because we’ve really enjoyed I Am Yoga but I will say it’s a bit advanced for the toddler age. I think preschoolers and older would get more out of it. Lastly, A Book of Love is a brand new book that is all about making, keeping, and mending friendships. D loves talking about the emotions of the children, the interactions between friends, and the beautiful and bright illustrations!

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of these links, you won’t pay anything extra, but I will get a small commission, which helps keep this blog going. Thanks for supporting Montessori in Real Life!

A Moon and Sun Theme for Toddlers

It’s that time of year again, when the weather is dreary and we long to see the sun, and even the moon. Both the moon and the sun have really piqued D’s interest lately, so that has been our theme this week! If you also have a toddler interested in this topic, maybe one or more of these will spark your interest too. We kept our focus on just the sun and the moon, rather than the entire solar system, but I can see expanding the unit next year!

Phases of the Moon Matching - I was inspired by some beautiful artwork to create my own phases of the moon matching activity for D. I already had a bunch of felt laying around, so I used that! To make the moons, I traced around the bottom of a jar on the felt, and then cut out the different waxing/waning phases from those. I made two of each so that I could glue on one to the felt and have the other in a basket for her to match. I also made one “new moon” with black felt, that you can’t really see in the photo, but it’s there! :)

Nocturnal vs. Diurnal Forest Animals Sorting - A theme of many of the moon books we have are which animals are awake when the moon shines. So along this theme, I made a simple nocturnal/diurnal activity matching. We also learned that a couple of the animals (rabbit and deer) are crepuscular meaning they are most active at sunrise and sunset! This has been a fun activity to do while we read Little Owl’s Day and Night (see below). D loves these small forest animals (set 1 and set 2). The scene came from here.

Moon and Sun Sensory Play - As with many sensory activities, D has been very absorbed in this one. While the “day” and “night” scenes have mixed, she loves singing our moon and sun songs while she plays. She gets totally zoned in pouring, transferring, and creating with these materials.

For the blue sky, I dyed rice with blue food coloring and a little vinegar (instructions from Busy Toddler). I created the clouds with cotton balls. For the night sky, I used dried black beans and glow in the dark mini stars. I printed off images of the sun and the moon and laminated them.

Daytime/Nighttime Giant Stacking/Nesting Blocks - While maybe not teaching about the moon and the sun, these giant stacking and nesting blocks are so much fun, and along our theme. One side of each block is a day to night scene and another is constellations. This is a fun one for us to build together, but her favorite is nesting them inside each other!

Books

Moon - One of my favorite Peek-through picture books that shows the moon changing shape on each page and the animals that play when the sun goes down! Really beautiful illustrations.

Peep Inside Nighttime - This one is so much fun for D. She loves peeking in the tiny windows to see the baby waking up, the tree to see the owl hooting, and the bakery shop and construction sites where people are hard at work all night.

Moon, Gorgeous Moon - I love this sing-songy rhyming story. It allows the child to imagine where the moon might go when it disappears, but ends with “or maybe, just maybe, you disappear, for others to see who aren’t so near” and the reassurance that the moon always comes back.

Little Owl’s Night - This has been one of our favorites since D was a little baby. It’s a simple but very sweet story about all the activity happening in the forest at night. Little Owl wants to show Bear the moon, but he’s fast asleep.

Little Owls’ Day - A fun complement to the night story. In this story, Little Owl wakes up too early and sees all that’s going on in the daytime, under the sun. Bear shows him the rainbow and he finally gets to show Bear the moon. :)

Reading Little Owl’s Night to help figure out which animals sleep at night vs. in the day

Songs

We’ve also been singing a few Moon and Sun songs! Check out our Spotify playlist here. :) This is another fun one I found online that we’ve been singing together:

From https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/space-song-book-3013197

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Welcoming Spring!

We got our first taste of Spring this week, and it was glorious! It’s amazing what a little vitamin D and hours of outdoor play can do you for the soul. I can’t help but smile at the pure joy this girl gets from the slide, even when it’s her 30th round. The sun also peeked out just in time for the Spring-themed activities I had planned for D!

The best way to introduce many of the foundations of these activities (flowers, insects, vegetables) to toddlers is to first experience them in real life. So I’ve been pointing out all the things we see on our walks or at the grocery store, to get D familiar with the living things/objects we read about or see pictures/replicas of at home. It is much easier to grasp the abstract of a picture once they’ve felt, touched, and smelled the real thing. And It doesn’t hurt to have another excuse to play in the dirt and stop to smell the roses!

Gardening - I do not have a green thumb but D has given me the motivation I need to try a little gardening this spring. I got her this gardening tool set (recommended by my friend at www.montessorinmotion.com) so we can work out in the yard together, and so far she loves toting it around anywhere. ;) We started by planting a few pea seeds to water and watch grow together over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed we are rewarded with at least a sprout! Because D couldn’t get enough of the watering part, I also showed her other flowers and plants she could water around the house and yard, and she has been very busy!

Insect Grabbing - This is something we set up in the toddler classroom a couple of years ago, so I was excited to introduce it at home! Since D no longer needs this bottle dryer, we’ve repurposed it as grass. In the grass, I hid several of these Toob insects for her to find, grasp/pinch, and collect in a basket. She isn’t yet able to use the tongs so much prefers to use her fingers. She has definitely hit a language explosion and it’s fun to hear her say the names for the insects (“cede!”), and connect them to the ones we read about in her books!

Fruit & Vegetable Matching - Toob is just the best for language and matching activities. Realistic, but small, and easy to find or make corresponding cards for. I found some printable matching cards here, but it’s easy enough to take photos of each fruit/vegetable and make your own. These Toob fruits and vegetables are perfect for Spring, and learning about the various types we see and taste. As I mentioned, it is best to first introduce objects in “real life”, so before introducing these replicas and cards, I made sure D had experienced feeling and (hopefully) tasting each of these foods to get her more familiar with them. While matching the real fruits and vegetables is ideal, it isn’t always realistic when the work is sitting out on the shelf for days on end!

Flower Arranging - This is such a simple, but lovely and meaningful, activity. Just as we enjoy having beautiful flowers on the table, so do toddlers. As the flowers begin to bloom here in the Northwest, I’ve noticed D spotting them and wanting to look at/touch/smell them too. Instead of saying ‘no’ every time she wanted to touch the beautiful arrangements, it made sense to give her her own flowers to explore and enjoy. Giving her the opportunity to pour a bit of water in a vase, place a few flowers in it, and bring to her own table gives her a piece of that beauty indoors, and makes her feel respected and important too. Older toddlers can expand on this by trimming the stems and creating more elaborate arrangements!

Springtime Books - As always, D loves her books! Here are her favorites this season:

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert - This board book complements our vegetable & fruit matching activity well, and D enjoys mimicking all the different vegetables and fruits on each page. Maybe this spring at the Farmer’s Market, D will know more about the produce than me!

Spring Babies by Kathryn O. Galbraith - This is a very cute board book series, with a book for every season. With simple words and actions, D loves to “play” along and look at the friendly, diverse faces on each page.

The Little Gardener by Jen Gerardi - This is a sweet story about how to tend to a garden with nice, simple rhymes. D loves opening the peek-a-boo flaps on each page too!

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert - As always, this board book by Lois Ehlert is both beautiful and educational. We learn the process of planting a seed and watching it grow, and are rewarded with a rainbow of flowers and pages at the end!

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner - After getting her winter book, Over and Under the Snow, we had to check out the Spring one too. Though it’s not a board book, it’s D’s favorite, and she’s pretty careful with the pages. It features beautiful pictures and details about the various forms of insects, plants, and other creatures under and over the dirt.

Happy Spring!

A Montessori Toddler Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! It’s funny how Valentine’s Day changes through the decades. It starts as trading valentines with friends, then becomes date nights out with champagne, and now we’re at date nights in with a child and a bump. ;) I wouldn’t have it any other way though. I get to celebrate love x3 this year.

A new tradition I’m happy to start this year is Valentine’s themed activities for D. With a busy toddler, there is always a need for some DIY on my part to keep her entertained! This holiday just gives me an excuse to make these activity trays a little extra sweet. I hope one or two of these inspire you to spread the love too!

PS. If you are looking for small trays such as the ones displayed here, my go-to site is Montessori Services. Check out the options here. I find most of my larger wooden Trays on Amazon, such as these.

Valentine “mailbox”

This is D’s favorite of her new trays. I found this Valentine’s gift box for $1 at Target last year, and I’m repurposing it as a mailbox. Using an exacto-knife, I cut a small slit in the top of the box. After searching around the house for something to put in the “maibox” I found the letter tiles from Bananagrams (Scrabble tiles would also work). They fit perfectly and D loves the feel of them. They are just the right level of challenge for her to fit into the small slot in her box. When she’s done inserting her “mail”, she can then open up the box and start again.

Heart stickers

D, like many toddlers, is big into stickers right now. I was excited to find this giant roll of heart stickers on Amazon so she can stick to her heart’s content. To set this up, I place about 6-8 stickers on the tray at once, with a small piece of paper. If your toddler is just starting out with stickers, I find it easiest to fold back the paper backing a bit so that the sticker is easier to peel off. She loves filling the page, and beyond!

Pom-pom transferring

I found these adorable ceramic heart bowls at the grocery store (you could probably find similar ones at Target!) and bought them before I knew how I’d use them. Then I found these assorted pom poms on Amazon and decided to make a little transferring tray. I introduced these little tongs for D, and she is starting to get the hang of how to pinch them to pick something up. Sometimes she just pours the pompoms back and forth or uses her pincer grasp - all good options!

Play dough stamping

My go-to play dough recipe is this one, though you can definitely find hundreds of others on Pinterest. I can make it in less than 5 minutes and it makes a large amount that saves well in a ziplock bag. Though D enjoys play dough on its own, she is especially enjoying a couple of tools to use with it, such as these mini rolling pins and heart cookie cutters (well technically my favorite is a heart ravioli stamp!).

Books

We also have a few favorite “Valentine’s Day” themed books right now. Each of these is simple and sweet enough for your toddler to sit through, and (most) are based in reality. My favorite right now is How do You Say I Love You, which is a story of how to say “I love you” in many different languages! Counting Kisses is D’s favorite because I get to kiss her toes up to her head. :)

You are My Heart by Marianne Richmond

Love by Emma Dodd

How Do You Say I Love You? by Hannah Eliot

Counting Kisses by Karen Katz

Snuggle Puppy! by Sandra Boynton

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of these links, you won’t pay anything extra, but I will get a small commission, which helps keep this blog going. Thanks for supporting Montessori in Real Life!

Introducing Themes - Arctic/Antarctic Animals

One of my favorite parts of being a preschool teacher was coming up with activities for our monthly themes. In our Montessori school, we didn’t go overboard with themes, but we’d incorporate a few special activities to fit with the seasons or holidays. Now that D is 18 months, and given that it’s the start of a new year, it’s something I’m going to try to incorporate. We are starting with identifying animals that live in the icy polar regions. Since D is still so young, we aren’t yet going into specifics of Arctic vs. Antarctic. ;)

D’s favorite activity is her Arctic animal matching. Now that she’s mastered exact object to picture matching, here I introduced similar object to picture matching. As you can see the figurine isn’t a perfect match to the animal photo. You can read more on this type of language work in my previous blog post on language learning. The arctic animals are a Safari Ltd TOOB set and I purchased these arctic animal photo cards for $1 from Teachers Pay Teachers. (To print, I scaled each photo flash card down to 30%, printed on cardstock, and laminated.) not only matches the animals to these photo cards but also likes to bring them over to her winter animal books to find matches. TOOB animals have so many uses!

Another Antarctic-themed activity we’ve incorporated at home is our snow sensory play. I filled our sensory bin with white kinetic sand, snowflake confetti, and large penguin figurines. She loves to scoop the “snow” with her hands or small spoons, fill her wooden molds, and move the penguins around the bin. (Unfortunately I do not have link to wooden molds - they have been discontinued on Amazon.) If you haven’t tried kinetic sand before, it’s such a great sensory experience for toddlers, lasts a long time, and is easy to clean up. I would avoid using this around carpet though! DIY hack: you can also make “snow dough” by combining 4 cups corn starch with 1/2 cup vegetable oil!

Lastly, we of course relied heavily on books for this theme, and winter season in general. She and I have started going to the local library every other week which has definitely helped us with our winter collection! Below you’ll see a list of our favorites. D has been very excited to move onto some larger and lengthier books, though we save the library and hardback books for reading together, and board books for her baskets and shelves.

Winter Books:

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats - a classic, award-winning story about the simple joys of a first snowfall

Arctic Animals by Tad Carpenter - a fun guessing game of who’s hiding, and a few fun facts about each animal!

Over and Under by Kate Messner - this is my favorite new winter book, with a beautiful story of skiing over the snow and thinking about which animals are hiding beneath

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson - a sweet fictional story about little animals throwing a party in bear’s den while he hibernates

The Mitten by Jan Brett - another classic that probably doesn’t need explaining!

Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluk - a beautiful poem about the gifts this new baby will receive from each arctic animal

Brrr! Brr! by Sebastien Braun - another lift the flap board book, with animal noises!

Winter Babies by Kathryn Galbraith - simple but lovely, featuring diverse faces and actions to repeat

Under my Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin - perfect for discussing the many layers we wear when we step outside in wintertime!

Updated December 2019:

We are still loving this arctic theme a year later. Here are a few ways we’ve expanded on it!

Arctic Animal Track Matching

I found these lovely animal/track matching cards on Teachers Pay Teachers, and used them to make a matching work with several of the Arctic Toob animals. This is a nice challenge for D (at 2.5) as it involves matching three parts.

Arctic Animal Yoga Cards

D loves yoga, and these themed yoga cards are just such a fun way to make yoga cards new again! There are 20 poses, each with a card of the animal and a child doing the pose. To print, I scaled them down to be able to fit 4 cards per laminator sheet.

Polar Layered Puzzle

These types of puzzles are great for 2-year-olds, as they are challenging but do-able, and great for repetition. I love this beautiful layered puzzle by George Luck.

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