Maria Montessori believed that the natural world should be part of a
Montessori preschool child’s education. Because Earth Day is an excellent opportunity to teach children about our environment and how to care for it. Earth Day activities use nature to make language, science, and math come to life for small children.
Language and Reading
Learning to recognize the names of different flowers and trees as you stroll around outdoors is an excellent opening for Earth Day. Inside the Montessori preschool, egg cartons filled with potting soil make perfect starter cups for flower, tomato, and bell pepper seeds. The students can practice drawing pictures of what the seeds will germinate into, and learn how to spell their names.
Math Activities
From counting the number of flowers to sorting and grouping leaves by type, Earth Day activities will
encourage critical thinking and improve fine motor skills. As the seedlings begin to grow, Montessori preschool kids can measure the progress, and use comparative thinking to determine which ones are growing more quickly.
Earth Day Science
We live in a thin layer of air, and all of the components of our environment work together to make it a safe place to live. Planting trees help reduce greenhouse gases by converting them into oxygen. Picking up litter keeps our community attractive and helps keep down rodent populations. Reusable items like dishes and cups use less of our planet’s resources. Learning these practical experiences at an early age helps children
grow into the responsible leaders of tomorrow.
Earth Day and your
Montessori preschool go well together. The goal of both is to increase people’s knowledge about the world they live in through enjoyable projects. The end result is practical life experiences that broaden a child’s horizons and address all aspects of learning in a natural way. Maria Montessori would have been excited that a world holiday has been devoted to learning about our role in our environment.
