Montessori Books for Older Children: The Universe Story Trilogy

It’s time for another 12 Months of Montessori Series and today I am sharing Mavi’s favourite book series.  We have been using these books for years now.  The books are all about the cosmic history to the evolution of man.  The stories are accompanied by stunning images and time-line to follow.  Everything in these books are just too magical and enlightening for him!

About the books:

There are three books in the series and each tells a certain period in time.  Here are the details of the books which you can purchase from Amazon:

• BORN WITH A BANG.  Story of the universe from the Big Bang to the formation of the sun and solar system.
• FROM LAVA TO LIFE.  Story of Earth from the appearance of the first life forms to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
• MAMMALS WHO MORPH.  The story of the first mammals to the story of humans.

When I asked Mavi how we’re going to showcase his books in today’s post, he suggested that we should make some kind of “interpretation”, similar to a museum but only in a series of activities.    So I scanned and laminated  his favourite parts in each book so we can do our “interpretation” of the story.

BORN WITH A BANG:  how the universe was formed.  Seen here, we replicated the bursting of lights in the universe forming into galaxies, stars and planets via the milk/soap/food coloring science activity.  This was performed by Mavi and Vito.  The mixing and contrast of colours looked like the big bang!

BORN WITH A BANG:  the sun was formed.   We painted the sun using yellow and orange paints.  To make the flares as described in the book, we used plastic fork to create a dramatic effect on the sun.

FROM LAVA TO LIFE:  the first life forms.   We used the Safari Toob Cambrian Life to learn about the early life forms of mother Earth.  We explored this before so it was another round of learning for Mavi and something new for Vito LOL.

FROM LAVA TO LIFE:  the age of the dinosaurs.   This was the kids favourite part of the history.  Mavi relived the era of dinosaurs by setting up his Playmobil Dinosaur collections, which includes a gigantic volcano, some plants and dinosaurs. We’ve been using our dinosaur Playmobils for months now, they’re worth-it!  I stopped buying LEGOs and started investing in  Playmobils for more imaginative play (for both boys). Who couldn’t resist dinosaurs? Even Vito loves them to pieces!

MAMMALS WHO MORPH:  the first humans.   Next we moved on to the life of the first humans.  This Playmobil Caveman set (a gift) is another favourite! It has a fire that glows (battery operated), a mammoth, sabertooth and humans.  Mavi and I discussed what has changed after the dinosaurs left the planet.  We talked about the difference of the dinosaurs and the (new set) animals of the stoneage era,  how the first humans survived, how they produced food, clothings and homes. 

MAMMALS WHO MORPH:  the age of technology.  This is the part of the book wherein it mentions about the human inventions and discoveries, of how it helped the lives of many people but at the same time how advancement destroys mother Earth.  This is timely because  Mavi’s school is currently educating them about biodiversity, of what is “going green”, building insect hotels and recycling old materials.

For this part of the book,  we explored the house and identified machines and other technologies that have helped humans all throughout history.  The oven for cooking, washing machine for the clothes, toilet and bathroom for grooming, electricity, water system, networks and world wide web… etc.  We then discuss the ways humans destroy the planet and how we can help to rebuild it.

With just three books, were were able to learn history, science, math and all others in between!  Hope you are inspired by this post and hopefully, grab a copy of the books as well!  Happy reading and learning!

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This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.  Let’s check what my fave Montessori Mom bloggers are featuring this month!”"

The Best Montessori Friendly Books: Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Elementary | Natural Beach Living

Montessori-Friendly Living Books Library | The Natural Homeschool

Favorite Montessori-Friendly Books for a 2 Year Old | Living Montessori Now

10 Ways To Make Your Kids Crazy About Reading | Planting Peas

Montessori Friendly Books -- Birth to Six | The Kavanaugh Report

Engaging Books for Preschoolers | Mama’s Happy Hive

Montessori & Fiction: Balancing the Bookshelf | Sugar, Spice & Glitter

Montessori Books for Older Children:  The Universe Story Trilogy | The Pinay Homeschooler

Children’s Books About Birds | Every Star is Different

Favorite Montessori Resources | Grace and Green Pastures

Our Favorite Montessori Inspired Books for Babies to Preschoolers | Christian Montessori Network

 

Exploring the Bucket Balance

Vito is 27 months old.

I have this bucket balance years ago and was mostly used by Mavi. He’s been using it to learn concepts like mass units and the concept of gravity.  I’m so hesitant to let Vito use it for the obvious reason that at his age, he might break it or doesn’t know how to use it.  But I was wrong! One day, I ran out of ideas for him so I bravely took our bucket balance and a bunch of Duplos for him to explore. Well, lo and behold! It was a total hit and didn’t expect that he’ll enjoy using it!

So what did Vito exactly  do with the balance and what are the things he discovered?

First, it goes up and down! This was the first thing he learned! Up and down, up and down he keeps on saying it as he manipulates the scale by placing Duplos in the bucket.

See his smile?

Then he realized he can control it as well by moving the center hold.  So he’s ignoring the weights (Duplos) but controlling the balance by moving the center to left and right, thus making the scale goes up or down.

Next, he discovered that there’s a mini drawer where he can open and close. So we practiced it, open and close saying those words all together to learn the concept.

He started putting in some objects (weight) to see what will happen. And he closes it and said “hide”. 

Vito kept playing with this for the next 30 minutes, and we varied the number of Duplos in each bucket to see the effects. 

I honestly didn’t know that this old learning material of Mavi can have a big effect on Vito. It’s currently one of his favourite “toy” and we kept on using it as a tool in play pretend.  This is such an amazing tool for introducing early concepts of math, science and simple machines! This Learning Resources Bucket Balance if you have the chance can  also be a wonderful gift for birthdays and Christmas.  I’m happy that both of my boys have benefited from this!

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The Animal Kingdom Revisited

No school for Mavi means brainstorming for future activities. He opened up lately that he wanted to study about animals again, so I took out our cards on The Animal Kingdom and checked what else we missed and haven’t explored yet.  He reviewed the cards and sorted out the things that he wanted to learn this year.  He picked arthropods, starfish and jellyfish! Yay, something new!

Here are the animals we have studied so far: 

• annelids
• arthropods ( we haven’t worked crustaceans and centipedes yet) (Part One, Part Two)
• vertebrates (birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians) (Blog Post, Vertebrate Sorting Cards)
• mollusc (Part One, Part Two, Snail Nomenclature Card and Definition Booklet)

And the ones we have yet to explore…

• echinoderms (starfish)
• cnidaria (jellyfish)

We love using our animal kingdom chart  as our guide in our zoology activities at home. It’s easier much easier to identify animals and Mavi can easily memorize it through constant exposure.  If you are interested, you can check out our Animal Kingdom printable here or click the image below.

 

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Learning the Parts of the Human Eye

** contains affiliate links **

It’s Mavi’s midterm break and we decided to look into the parts of the human eye!  We examined our model unit this morning which we bought last year from the local store.  It’s so perfect and goes along so well with our Human Eye Nomenclature Cards and Booklet. 

To start with, we disassemble our eye model and identify the parts using our nomenclature cards.   Mavi was surprised that his eye is actually shaped like a sphere and yes, a ball!  All the while he thought it was flat. So as we identify the parts using the model, he can’t stop himself from examining my eye as well LOL.

When the parts were completely taken apart, we read our booklet to know the purpose of each part.  Don’t you just love our eye model? Even the inside of the eyeball has drawings of blood vessels on it. So detailed! 

I’m so used of making these booklets that I was able assemble it in just a few minutes.  I laminated the pages as well for longevity.

These are the 3 part cards.  I decided to add the eyelid and eyelash in the parts as they are also essential in defining the human eye.

Our little man was also as excited and thrilled to examine the human eye.  He was observing his brother and was attentively listening to Mavi’s soliloquy LOL.

                                    

And finally! He got the chance to borrow the eyeball and started to emulate his brother.

For the eye model/s here are the links where you can get them:

UK/Ireland

• Easons or Hamely’s (where I found my model)
• Learning Resources Cross Section Eye in AmazonUK
• Giant Eye Model in AmazonUK

US

• Eastcolight Opthalmology Set

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Simple Experiment: What Makes Ice Melt Faster?

This experiment is perfect for the winter season! Make use of the snowy days by performing this simple experiment on why we put salt on the icy road during snowy days.

Objective:

To determine which substance or what condition will make the ice melt faster.

Materials needed:

three bowls with ice

timer

sand

salt

marker/label

What to do?

1.  Fill the bowls with ice and label one bowl ICE, another bowl SAND and the last one is SALT.

2.  Place the salt ON the ice in the bowl that is marked SALT.

3.  Place the sand ON the ice in the bowl that is marked SAND.

4.  Observe your three subjects every 10 minutes for 30 minutes or more.

What happened?

The ice that is covered with SALT begins to melt but the one covered with SAND doesn’t melt.

Why?

As what we previously learned from our What Dissolves in Water experiment, we know that salt dissolves in water (easily).  This means that the salt breaks into small particles that thoroughly mix with the water.  A mixture or solution (mixture of a liquid a dissolved substance) of salt water has lower freezing point than the water alone.  So when salt is sprinkled on the surface of “wet” ice, the salt dissolves in the water-like surface layer of the ice causing the ice to melt.   Mostly, the salt water does not refreeze. 

Now you know why road workers sprinkle salt in the road or pavement on snowy days!

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Simple Experiments: Making CRATERS

Such a lovely activity for my kids! We had fun dropping balls of all sizes here and there  

Objective:

1.  To identify the type of surface where craters are formed.

 

Materials Needed:

an aluminum foil, the bigger the better

soft material like a newspaper, a rug or towel

balls or rocks

Procedure:

1.  Lay the soft material in the ground like a newspaper a rug or a towel.

2.  On top of it, lay the foil.

3.  Stand at the edge of the foil and drop the ball or rock at the center of the foil.  Note be decided to use the mini basketball because we realized that golf balls made a small impact.

4.  Repeat this process on a hard floor.  This time it was Vito’s turn to drop the ball.

5.  Examine both pieces of the foil.

Findings:

The ball that was dropped in the foil on a soft surface (first image below) made a larger impression compared to the foil lying on a hard floor (second image).  You can immediately see the impression when the ball is dropped in a soft surface!  Look at them, they look like craters!

You can barely see an impression here, but Vito did dropped the ball a few times.

What happened?

The ball that was dropped in the softer surface sank, allowing more of the ball to be pressed against the foil.  In effect, this created those “holes” in the foil.  This is similar to the case of a meteorite (stone or metal in space) when striking a soft surface, it creates a larger imprint that are shaped like holes called craters.  Craters are best formed when meteorites strikes soft, powdery surfaces like that in the moon!  Why not check out the surface of the moon to see a real crater!

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You might also want to check our previous experiments:

Why do stars twinkle?

Testing of different substances that dissolves in water.m

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Simple Experiments: Twinkle Twinkle Stars and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I love simple and easy to prepare experiments.  That’s why when we received a Janice VanCleave’s book as present last year, I was so elated! I love her books of experiments!  So we are trying some of it and so far the boys are enjoying it!

Objective:  To simulate the twinkling of stars in sky.

Materials needed:

a large square foil

glass bowl (preferably 2 liters)

tap water

a torch/flashlight

pencil

 

Procedure:

1.  Crumple your square foil and place it on a table or on a floor.

2.  Fill your clear bowl with tap water and place it on top of the crumpled foil. 

3.  Darken the room by turning off the lights.  Hold the torch or flashlight above the bowl.  Distance from the bowl  is about 12 inches.

4.  Observe the foil through the undisturbed water.

5.  Now using your pencil, tap the surface of the water gently.  Observe the foil through the moving water.

What happened? 

The light rays reflecting from the foil when there was a movement in water appears to blur or twinkle. 

Why? 

The movement of the water causes the depth of the water to vary.  The light rays twinkle because they bend or refract in different direction when it passed through the different depths of water. 

This is similar to the light rays of the stars.  They appear to be twinkling when you are observing from earth because they refract differently as the light rays move through the different thickness of air in the atmosphere.  Scientifically, this twinkling phenomenon is called ‘scintillation’. 

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Source:  Janice VanCleave Astronomy

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

In relation to our activity this week, I am featuring space and astronomy themed activities!

 

Relative Size of the Sun Activity from Research Parent

The Earth, The Sun & Stars from Every Star is Different

Space Explorer Toolbox from Montessori By Mom

Sensory Play for Earth Day from Mama’s Happy Hive

Earth Day from Child Led Life

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

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Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

• Please link up 1-3 posts
• Follow each of the hosts on social media
• When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
• By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
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• Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

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