🐮Land, 🐦Air, 🐙Water 🔖 Matching Activity

In a Montessori education, there is usually an introductory geography lesson focused on land, air, and water. Today, we are exploring animals' natural habitat through a matching activity, by sorting animals according to where they live: either on land, water, or air.

To introduce this lesson, I have put together a tray with the following materials:

• a sandpaper globe to differentiate primarily land vs water (read a post here);
• three glass containers with lids: I put some dirt/planting soil in one, some water with blue food coloring in the other, and the third one I left empty;
• sorting and labeling cards (download for your personal use here).

I explained to Adrian that the Earth is made up of land, water, and air. I then offered Adrian to match the labels "land, water, and air" to the glass containers, and then match the animals to their respective habitats.

The red control chart is called "control-of-error" and it offers a child an opportunity to double-check the work once completed.

"This is what our Earth is made from!" Adrian exclaimed!
"A cow (buy here) lives on land." 

"An octopus belongs in the sea."

Octopus (buy here) can be easily distinguished from other squids because they have eight tentacles. They are called "octopus" because the Greek word "okto" means eight and "puos" means foot. If they feel threatened, they release an ink-like liquid, which spreads in the water like a huge, dark cloud. The octopus can thus disguise the direction of its escape. Did you know that octopus is a master of camouflage because it can instantly change its body color from grey-brown to blue-green, red or pink!

"A seagull is a bird. It flies in the air."

Seagulls (buy here) with their white and grey feathers, long, slim wings and their characteristic loud call are the best known coastal birds. Did you know that seagulls can drink salt water!

Animals live everywhere! They roam the land, they dig burrows in the ground, they swim in the sea, they fly in the air!  They crawl, jump, creep, leap, soar, they dive, and they fly! It is amazing how diverse their habitat is!

For more on animals, see a post "Animals Movement – Swim, Walk, Fly" here and see here "World Animals and its Continental Habitat" post.

For details about matching activities read here a post "Language Objects with Matching Cards."