Flashcards: My First Nature (Montessori)

Main Intelligence: Naturalist
Skills: Environment sustainability
Learning Objectives: Observe and learn about the natural world; Learn about plants and fruits; Sort items
Topic/Context: Nature's plants, animals, and bugs
Game Type: Flashcards and active exploration

Instructions: Flashcards: My First Nature (Montessori)

Quick Instructions:

The Montessori method envisions that children, from early childhood, discover nature and its elements both through outdoor activities – in the garden, in the vegetable garden – and through the use of materials that allow them to expand their knowledge of nature and their outdoor experiences.

The instructions give a comprehensive guide to the parent/educator on how to facilitate a rich learning experience through an outing to a nearby garden with diverse flora and fauna. The role of the parent/educator is to incite curiosity in the children about nature and to teach them some basic elements of nature that the children can participate in locating and collecting for themselves, i.e plants, leaves, fruit, vegetables, flowers, pine cones, bugs, and so on. 

After this, the children can arrange their found items on a table and, using trays, can sort them and classify the groups of items using the Nature Flashcards. Encourage the children to observe, touch, study, experiment, ask questions, and make hypotheses independently.