Let’s explore North America! This Montessori North America continent study covers different activities ranging from studying the flags, life cycles, grammar and more!
Montessori North America Shelf overview
HOKA member Linda set-up her North America display using our materials. We really love how she added flags from some countries in North America!
HOKA member Theresa shows how she set-up her materials below. Everything is so neat and organised! We love it!
Montessori flag activities
In the HOKA Club, we have many different kinds of flags cards. Here, we used one set alongside the colour tablets for a fun colour matching activity.
Children can become familiar with the way that different flags of North America look.
Next, you can use the flags close-up cards. We cut out the circle cards and use Mod Podge to secure the cards to wooden disks. This extra dimension can be very interesting for young children.
You can see an example of the set-up of one of our HOKA Club members!
Tip: Place the mini flags onto the map of North America to practice geography.
Life Cycles of North America
Add some interesting life cycle studies to your North America unit. Study the life cycle of a saguaro cactus!
Life cycle of a cactus
The saguaro cactus can be found in western Mexico and in parts of Arizona in the United States.
Here, you can see an invitation to create a book about the life cycle of a cactus! This life cycle comes in cursive and print. We created a mini book that my children eventually coloured. Offer the spinner or the life cycle poster to help children visualize the life cycle.
Offer the life cycle pieces to the children to place in order. You can write the stage in development on the back of each image.
Children can use the movable alphabet in order to write each stage of development. Alternatively, offer strips of paper and a pencil for the child to make their own labels.
You can also introduce the life cycle of an animal!
Bear Life Cycle
Study the bald eagle or the bear!
Mammals have fewer stages in their development. It can be interesting to have a conversation about the differences between the life cycle of a mammal, and a bird for example!
Children can study the stages of development of a bear by using the 3-part cards. Afterwards, use the black and white cards to make their own DIY 3-part cards! Children can colour the images and then write the labels.
Mini environment
Here, we set-up a mini environment for our bear figurines! We have Schleich bears and cubs.
What you need:
- Red rice
- Blue glass beads
- Animal figurines
- Sticks
Offer the materials to the children. Ask the children arrange the materials to make a bear environment.
Extension: Offer slips of paper and a pencil. Children can label the environment.
Felt mat landmarks sorting
Have you made a land, water, air mat? We adapted our felt mat to fit this North America activity!
To make the mat, I used different colours of felt to cut out different landforms and features.
We combined the Mountain, River, and Desert material that I Believe in Montessori made for the HOKA Club alongside our mat! Since this activity required sorting images of desert, mountain, river landforms, I made those out of felt, as well. Some small additions to our mat also include:
- Grass
- Clouds
- Sky
None of the pieces were secured in place. I wanted to offer the children an opportunity to arrange the mats as they wanted during different activities.
Children could sort the images onto the mat for a purely visual activity. If they are reading already, they can sort the words cards.
Literacy
Writing
Let’s explore some animals from North America! Select some animal figurines, as well as the movable alphabet.
Children can write the names of each animal using the movable alphabet.
Prepositions
Explore prepositions with the Trillium Montessori North America Preschool Pack. This resource is available to HOKA Club members in our North America month.
I printed two copies of one of the preposition pages. Next, I cut out a bear and one of the blackberries. You could also use figurines/manipulatives for this.
Children can select one of the preposition cards. Next, they can move the manipulatives to represent what each label says.
Mix it up: Instead of using the bear and blackberry, ask the children to pretend to be the bear. They can hold the cut out blackberry or a blackberry manipulative. Next, they can “act out” the actions written on the cards.
Colours
There are a few ways we explored colours with the HOKA North America resources.
Matching
First, use the favourite colour tablets to match to animal cards from I Believe in Montessori that she made for the HOKA Club. These real images are so lovely!
Sorting
Another option is to sort objects from North America!
This silly activity is a great way to practice colours! I love adding the labels to a small little bag or wooden chest for the children to discover. How fun it is to have a little look inside to discover what’s there!
Get more North America printables
DISCOVER THE HOKA COMMUNITY
Please do note: the full North America theme and resources are available to HOKA Club members, including our guide that will help to break down the month. Our guide also has several tutorials showing you how to add hands-on activities to this unit study. You can learn more about the HOKA programme here.
For now, you can download some of the materials included in this article above.