Recommended Age: 3 to 5 years
Note: for younger children, sort the animal cards and introduce 2 continents at a time, older children may work with more
Purpose: For the child to develop an understanding of the connection between animals and the continents they originate from
Level of Parent Involvement: Low once the materials are prepared
Prerequisites
- The child should have been introduced to the names of the continents
- Prior to completing this exercise with the child, you may wish to have some conversations about what animals are found in the different parts of the world. You may like to research this topic and find images animals from each continent using an iPad or lap top
Materials
- Animals of the continents PDF
- Scissors
- Laminating sheets
- Laminator
- A4 sized tray to keep the continent cards
- Small container or box to keep the animal cards
Preparation
- Print all pages from the PDF
- Laminate the blank continent cards and the continent control cards with the animals
- Cut out all animal cards and laminate
- Place the animal cards into the container/box, place the continent cards on the tray
Steps
- Invite the child, bringing the prepared materials to the child’s table
- Have the control continent cards in one pile and the blank continent cards in another
- Let the child know that they will be looking at which animals are found in the different continents around the world
- Show the child the blank continent cards one at a time, asking the child “what’s this?” casually naming the continent if the child doesn’t know
- Notice the colour of each continent with the child at each card (these correspond to the colours of the continents on the painted globe and on the world map in a Montessori 3-6 classroom)
- Invite the child to choose their favourite continent
- Have a discussion with the child about the types of animals they think are found in that continent
- Have the animal cards in a pile, picture face down
- Turn each animal card over one at a time, asking the child “is this animal found here?”
- If the child thinks the animal matches the continent, they may place the animal card in one of the blank squares
- If they don’t think the animal belongs they may set the card to one side
- Once the child has filled all squares with the animal cards they may check their work with the control card, changing the animals as necessary to match the control card
- Name each animal with the child at the end
- The child may choose another continent and repeat as above, finding the correct animals to go with their corresponding continent
Variations
- The child may use blue tac to secure the animals to the card
The child may work with all cards at once
