Extending Montessori Animals of the Continents Work

We had an easy-to-prepare Montessori animals of the continents activity on the shelf for months. My 4-year-old (then 3-year-old) granddaughter, Zoey, was so in love with it that I kept it out much longer than most activities. Now I’ve removed it and replaced it with a fun extension that builds on that work.

 

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Previous Animals of the Continents Work

I’ve done a lot of animals of the continents work in my previous continent box posts. But I especially want to focus on this work as an extension of my previous work using the same printables.

That work was an easy-to-prepare yet inviting Montessori animals of the continents activity.

Materials Used for Montessori Animals of the Continents Extension

This is a great activity for a zoo unit. But it’s also a great activity for geography work in general.

The materials I used:

• Montessori continents globe (although you could use any globe)
• Montessori Services basket
• Montessori Print Shop Animals of the World Continent Pages (pages 1-7 set to print as multiples 4 per page – part of the Animals of the Continents Set.) This set is also part of the 21 Montessori Print Shop materials included in the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle!  There are animals of the world picture pages along with 7 work maps with continent outlines in the Animals of the Continents set that could be used for coloring or other work, too. 
• Continents of the World Cards (This set is also part of the 21 Montessori Print Shop materials included in the Montessori at Home eBook and Materials Bundle!)
• Safari Ltd. animals or Schleich animals. You can use the free Safari Ltd. TOOB Keys to see which Safari Ltd. TOOBS have the animals you want to use.
• Laminate cards if desired, although decide if it’s essential for your children. For a Montessori classroom, I always laminated materials and left a ¼” laminate edge. For home use, I typically print out the materials, laminate them, and then cut them out on the lines. They’re not as durable, but they can be prepared quickly and are generally durable enough for home use. Sometimes I don’t laminate the activities at all. If I don’t expect a material to be used much, I’ll just print it out on cardstock and leave it unlaminated. I love the Scotch Thermal Laminator for anything I do laminate.

Montessori Animals of the Continents Extension

This isn’t actually what the animal control cards are for, but it’s a wonderful matching activity. Readers can read the words to match the cards. Pre-readers can match the shapes of the letters and words and/or the shapes of the continent maps. This is also a good time to review the continents on the continents globe using the 3-period lesson.

After the cards were all matched, Zoey started matching the Safari Ltd. animals to the continent cards.

She continued until all the animals were matched. I’ll be changing the activity periodically by switching the animal used for each continent while still using animals from the cards. Zoey really enjoys this work, and it’ll be a wonderful extension for the work she’s done previously.

Note: On another day, we also extended the work by placing the continent cards and animals on the beautiful world map from Pin It! Maps.

More Animal and Continent Activities and Resources for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Updated November 2019

I have lots of Montessori continent box activities, many of them using Safari Ltd. animal figures.

I also have lots of zoo animal posts and resources:

• Montessori-Inspired Zoo Animal Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Zoo Animal Unit
• Farm, Zoo, & Ocean Animal Sensory Bottles for Babies and Toddlers
• Using the Montessori 3-Period Lesson to Teach Vocabulary to a Toddler
• Montessori-Inspired Toddler Vocabulary with Animals and Silhouettes
• Free Zoo Printables and Montessori-Inspired Zoo Activities
• Easy-to-Prepare Animals of the Continents Activity
• Free Zoo Animal Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Free Zoo Animal Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Simple African Animal and Continent Map Cut-and-Paste Activity {Free Printables}
• Extending Montessori Animals of the Continents Work
• Free Endangered Animal Songs and Educational Videos {Save the Animals}
• Montessori Vertebrate Resources for Preschool Through Elementary
• Zoo Animal Unit Study Pinterest Board

Do you have a favorite activity using animal figures and continent work?

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