Montessori Zoology Cabinet work

I will start this post by saying that you must visit this blog for the most amazing nature study ideas I have found:) This is also another wonderful blog doing incredible things!! This is another blog that had ideas I loved for creating a backyard animal, plant & insect identification book - I have everything ready for mine I just need to put it together:))

Above is our Zoology Cabinet & Animal Activity Set

 that I purchased from here.  Our Nomenclature Booklets & Cards are from here. The bird and other xray images printed on transparency paper are from google images.

Xander spent most of his time reading the nomenclature booklets, and checking out various bird species on the computer. While the animals contained in this cabinet are well known to Xander this material is a gateway to the study of the 5 animal kingdoms and the natural world charts. Once we have made our way through the cabinet we will move on to classification for vertebrates & invertebrates, oviparous or viviparous, food chain among many many others.  Many of these materials  can be found here and here. There are some great free animal kingdom and classification materials here.  Here are more great free materials for animal study & science.

Ava will be working more with the Land Water & Air Mat, and matching 3 part cards. I use this Zoology Album from Montessori Research and development, you can click on the index to see what it contains.  There is great focus on the observation, and care of animals in this album.  This can easily be achieved through pet care and observation at home, as well taking advantage of visiting Museums and sites, as shown below...and outings like this one and this.  We have friends with farms and that is wonderful, we also have neighbors with horses that we take walks to visit...unless..of course you are lucky enough to live on a farm!! We spend a great deal of time exploring outdoors.  There are many Museums we have enjoyed and visit often like...The Canadian Museum of Nature .  We take many road trips with the children and take full advantage of the opportunity to visit sites like the Hopewell Rocks.

Ava's main focus was on puzzles:))

These are our nomenclature books, you can see how I made these here.

We went on a family outing to "Little Ray's Reptile Zoo"

and the children had an amazing learning experience.

Since 1995,  "Little Ray's Reptile Zoo" has been offering one of Canada’s most fun and interactive approaches to eco education and zoology. The reptile zoo has the largest and most diverse animal education outreach program in Canada. Most of the animals acquired, are from homes who could no longer care for them.

Xander was able to attend a live feeding show where they focused on snake & chameleon education anatomy and feeding.

Here are some of the books we love and have collected for the children.