As seasons change, from winter to spring, Adrian is becoming more and more aware of the surrounding environment, and awareness leads to questions. Why do seasons change? Are seasons ever late? When will it be 🌨winter again? So, I dedicated a shelf to 🌸🌳🍂☃️ seasons, where Adrian can observe nature and reflect hands-on.
"How does the child assimilate his environment? It begins with a knowledge of his surroundings… This is an intense and specialized sensitiveness in consequence of which the things about him awaken so much interest and so much enthusiasm that they become incorporated in his very existence. The child absorbs these impressions not with his mind, but with his life itself." ~ The Absorbent Mind, p. 22. Dr. Maria Montessori.
To represent the current season ~ 🌸Spring 🌱~ I found this beautiful Wall Art Canvas Claude Monet reproduction: Irises in Monet's Garden 16 x 12 for $13 (buy here ~ different sizes available). I intend to change these reproductions every season. For the summer, I will hang the Water Lilies by Claude Monet Oil Painting reproduction (buy here).
Laminated matching Seasons Cards are on the shelf as well as nature's finds and a microscope. See our Microscope Study here.
Fresh flower arrangements are one of the most desired Practical Life Activities. See here a detailed lesson in a post 🍂Fall Inspired 🌼Flower ✂️Arranging Activity.
There must be [a] provision for the child to have contact with nature, to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in it… so that the child may better understand and participate in the marvelous things which civilization creates. ~ The Secret of Childhood ~ Dr. Maria Montessori.
To the message board on the left (buy similar here), Adrian can pin the current season's cards.
"From the age of three till six, being able now to tackle his environment deliberately and consciously, [the child] begins a period of real constructiveness." ~ Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 152.
Below is our geography area (if you like our shelves ~ buy them here), where I organized animals by their continental habitat according to Montessori continental color-coding. See our original lesson on Montessori Colored 🌈 Continent 🌎Globe here where I explained how in Montessori Cultural and Science curriculum continents are consistently color-coded (North America is always orange, Europe ~ red, Asia ~ yellow, and so forth).
On the bottom shelf, we also have the Language Tower with Pink and Green Letter Series and some sensorial materials.
Did you know that tigers live only in Asia? Tigers are an endangered animal. Larger subspecies, such as the Siberian tiger, tend to live in northern, colder areas, such as eastern Russia and northeastern China. Smaller subspecies live in southern, warmer countries, such as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. India has more tigers than any other country in the world.
Here, we have South America tray, Europe, and Forest Animals (see a post here), and Land-Air-Water Activity. Buy our wild animal figurines here, North America farm animals here and Forest baby animals here. 
A giraffe is one of Adrian's favorite animals (along with a zebra). See a post about 💚African Savanna Animals here.
Here, we have North America and Farm Animals (see a post here) and U.S. Landmarks🗽 (see a post here).
The "prepared environment" is Maria Montessori's concept that the environment should be designed with the child in mind. Montessori’s idea of such environment was that everything the child comes in contact with would facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child. A thoughtful, inviting and well-ordered environment would give the child an opportunity to experience a combination of freedom and self-discipline, where a child is free to choose and work on activities at his/her own pace. “The child can only develop fully by means of experience in his environment. We call such experience ‘work’.” The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 7, p. 88., Dr. Marial Montessori.
For Spring hands-on educational activities, see here a roundup post ~ 🌸Spring 🌱Inspired Themed Unit Study.
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