If you’d like to extend your Japan studies to include art, we’ve also got a new set of Famous Artists cards: Famous Artists – Hokusai. Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist who lived from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. His work with woodblock printing, most notably his series on Mt. Fuji, makes him the most well-known and influential Japanese artist of all time.

To make things easier for everyone, we are selling these two items on Japan in a set called Ancient Japan Set at a 10% savings. We hope you enjoy these materials – we had a great time making them!

Students who want to further study Japan and Japanese culture can make use of abundant internet resources.

Helpful websites include:

Kids Web Japan – games, pictures, news articles, and maps presented in a fun and engaging style

Activity Village – Fun for Kids – includes printables and craft ideas for studying Japan

Montessori Muddle – Plate Tectonics and the Earthquake in Japan – an easy-to-understand explanation of the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami, with pictures, charts, and graphs. Please watch the videos yourself first before showing them to children to make sure they are suitable

Alison’s Montessori has some beautiful materials about Japan, including a Japanese House Block Set complete with samurai guards, a Sake Pouring Exercise, and a book called Travel Through: Japan that features and photos about Japanese history and modern-day Japan

Any other great ways to study Japan in the Montessori classroom?

I think boxes like these are a great way to organize geography materials, and make it fun and easy to study each continent. Since many of you have asked me how I put the boxes together, I’ve taken pictures of all my boxes and their contents to give you some ideas.

(To see all my continent box pictures, full size, please visit my Montessori for Everyone Facebook page!)

1. The Boxes

I decided to use photo shoe boxes for my continent boxes. I found one to match each continent color (according to the traditional Montessori continent colors) except for yellow (Asia). My Asia kit resides in a blue box. If you ever see a yellow photo box for sale online, let me know!

I printed two labels for each box, with the name of the continent on it. One to go on the front of the box (most photo boxes have little metal label holders) and one to go on the lid of the box.

I keep the boxes stacked on the lower level of my map cabinet, so that they are readily available when we use the wooden puzzle maps. An atlas and globe are also nice to have nearby.


2. Organizing Card Materials

I like to put the card sets in envelopes that match the color of the continent. I print labels to go on the front of these as well. When the sets are large (like Asia flags), I divide them into two or more sets. I use the continent materials primarily in elementary, not primary, so I make the flags/places/animals/plants as 2-part cards, not 3-part.

For 2-part cards, I print only one set of the cards, the ones with the line in between the picture and label. I cut the cards apart, and then put colored sticker dots on the backs to color-code them.

When my kids use the cards, they match them as best they can, then turn them over to check (or to figure out any that they didn’t know on sight). I find this works well for elementary; using the control cards just makes it too easy. You could print the control cards and make them into a book, if you wanted. The children could get the control book after matching the cards to check their work.

3. Adding Books to the Boxes

I was delighted to find two different series of books that have one book for each continent. You can find them at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or used on eBay. They are:

True Books – Continents by David Petersen

Rookie Read-About Geography Books by Allan Fowler

What I like about both types of books is that they are small enough to fit inside the photo boxes, and they give nice overviews of each continent. They are a starting point, naturally; most kids will want to do further research after reading these books, in which case a trip to the library is probably in order.


4. Adding Objects and Memorabilia

It’s a longtime tradition in Montessori to add objects to geography studies. They stimulate a child’s interest and imagination. It can be hard to find things from each continent, though. I’ve had success on eBay, particularly, buying inexpensive things like:

stamps
paper money
coins
postcards
bookmarks
stickers
rocks and minerals
CDs of global music (I love the Putamayo World Music CDs)

If you have friends and family who live abroad, or who are traveling, ask them to bring back some small mementos for you. I know of programs where Montessori schools or families in different countries become penpals, in which case you can exchanges items from each country.

There are quality animal figurines available from several manufacturers, including Schleich and Safari Ltd (Google to find sources) so that you can add a few to each continent box.

Larger items, like maps, posters, and flags, can be kept in expandable files or other containers and brought out whenever you study that particular continent.

5. Additional Resources

Here are some other great ideas for continent boxes and studies:

Continent Boxes Finally Ready from LaPaz Home Learning

Continent Boxes Redux from Sweetness and Light

World Tour: Care to Come Along? from the Seredipity blog

Continents and Cultures: Africa from the Serendipity blog – an unbelievable list of projects, book recommendations, and lesson plans for Africa

Continents and Cultures: India and the Middle East from the Serendipity blog – similar to the Africa post; a huge resource

Guides for the Montessori Classroom from New Child Montessori – the four guides, together, cover all seven continents and include songs, book lists, art projects, poems, and other resources for continent studies

Montessori ‘n’ Such – click on their “Cultural and Geography” category and you’ll find a great selection of continent items, including books, CDs, puzzles, pictures, coins, and even children’s clothing from various countries

Remember, you can view all my continent box pictures at my Montessori for Everyone Facebook page.

If you have any other ideas for continent boxes, or places that you can find continent books and objects, please share!

However, I realized that it might be helpful to talk about the charts, how they originated, the thought process behind them, and how they are used.

The Geography Charts

The Geography Impressionistic Charts date have been used for decades, and consisted of drawings that were hand-colored by students during the Montessori training. The reason for the word “impressionistic” is because they are supposed to strike at the child’s imagination. They are intended to give the child an impression of a certain concept that stays vivid in their minds.

This idea is in line with Montessori’s ideas about child development: the 0-6 age is a concrete one, based on reality and reasoning. The 6-9 child, having firmly established the difference between fantasy and reality, can be given pictures and ideas that are not necessarily rooted in reality.

Truthfully, as I really pulled apart the charts to understand them, I had to question the wisdom of making them completely impressionistic. The original charts use angels and other fantastical ideas to explain very concrete concepts about earth science.

As I mulled over them, I realized that because of their “impressionistic” nature, I had actually not completely understood which concepts they were each trying to convey. Some were more clear than others, but some were very difficult to understand. So I began to ask, is the “impressionistic” model truly the best way to teach science concepts?

Understandably, making changes to long-standing Montessori work is a bit risky. And yet these charts were outdated and inaccurate based on scientific advancement and discovery. Would Dr. Montessori want children to be given outdated information just because they were materials that had been used for decades? I think not.

In revising and updating the charts, I sought to preserve the best parts – the concepts themselves and the interesting way they are presented. I kept the order of the charts and the titles. As I did researched, I found that many of the experiments were actually from a different source and added to the charts later. This gave me a lot of freedom to change and improve the experiments, and add even more.

I added two sections to each experiment: one to explain how the experiment relates to the chart, and the other to explain the scientific concept behind each experiment. This means that teachers and parents can use the experiments with confidence, not having to guess at how and why they work.

The Botany Charts

The philosophy behind the Botany Impressionistic Charts, which were created in the 1970s, is similar to the Geography Charts: to take botany concepts and give children an “impression” of them along with a small bit of actual information.

By using color photos instead of drawings, I think the charts have been brought to life in a new way. I did change some titles of the Botany charts as some were outdated or misleading. And, I added new information to each explanation so that there is more substance to each concept.

How to Use Them

Even though both sets of charts use color photos and are not quite as reliant on “impressions”, they are still meant for elementary. There is actually a second set of Geography Charts for Elementary 9-12 (charts 18 – 60) that I will hopefully be completing by the end of this year. The full set of geography charts, 1-60, is meant for children ages 8-11, according to the album I received in my training.

A 3-6 age child should be mastering the very important nomenclature that will be featured in these charts when they are in elementary: all the geography and botany nomenclature cards, some beginning research, and some basic classification. Any child who has not completed those (and by completed, I mean not just that they have done them but that they have mastered the information) should not embark on the Impressionistic Charts just yet.

Each set of charts includes instructions for using them. The presentation is as simple as showing the children the chart and reading the accompanying explanation. Each child can then decide what they’d like to record (a sentence or two, a drawing, or both) and whether or not they’d like to do any additional research.

Hopefully, this will help you understand the two chart sets, and if you do decide to purchase them, you should find them easy to use and a real asset to your classroom.

History in Montessori is an interesting subject, because we take the long view. The really, really long view. We start at the beginning of the universe and work our way up to the present day. That’s why astronomy is a subset of history, and why materials like the “Parts of the Earth” show up in the history category. We see history as everything that’s happened up until now, not just recorded human history (which is often how it’s defined in traditional education).

Moving from Primary to Elementary

In 3-6, history falls under the general “cultural” label. Activities include the study of time (clock and calendar), celebration of the child’s own birthday (including the creation of a timeline of the child’s life), observation of the seasons, and introductory work about the earth, planets, and volcanoes. As you can see, there is a distinct emphasis on sequence and the passage of time. Grounding the child firmly in the understanding of days, months, and years gives them a head start on the study of historical events.

In 6-9, each new school year commences with the Great Lessons about the Coming of the Universe and Earth, the Coming of Life and Humans, and the advent of Language and Math. All of these lessons enable the child to see “the big picture” before learning about specific events and people. Also, the 6-9 child is able to understand more sophisticated concepts and ideas.

In 9-12, the child is truly ready to study history from an analytical and comparative point of view. They can be introduced to the ideas of revisionism and perspective; in other words, the way people change their interpretation of historical events over time. They are also ready to analyze and compare civilizations, countries, events, and governments.

Making History Materials

Some of the most successful history materials I made were timelines. In one case, I used a sticker book from Dorling Kindersley of the most important events in the past 100 years (I couldn’t find it online, or I would link to it). I put the stickers on cardstock and laminated them, and then laminated a long piece of paper (from an adding machine) and put Velcro every few inches, along with the years that the various events occurred. The kids would then put the stickers in order on the timeline. It was a huge hit.

I also try to use holidays to study historical events. This will vary by country, but here in the United States, I found that the birthdays of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. lend themselves well to studies of the three gentlemen. By extension, you can also study the formation of the United States, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement at the same time.

This spring, my son chose “The Roman Empire” as the topic for his research project. It was completely his choice, and never once did I mention that we were studying history. To him, it was just a fascinating subject. While the writing quality of the Magic Tree House books is dubious, the books do introduce children to a variety of historical settings. We didn’t learn much from the actual book where the children visit Pompeii right before Mt. Vesuvius erupts, but the accompanying research guide for Ancient Rome was full of interesting and helpful information, and the familiar format made it fun for my son to read.

You may notice that there’s quite a bit of overlap between the curricular areas. For instance, in studying the Timeline of Life, the child will study plants and animals from the different periods. That naturally includes botany and zoology. The study of world events leads to information about geography and culture. This kind of overlap is natural, and desirable. It helps the child to have a comprehensive, integrated view of the world.

Some Suggestions for History Studies

1st grade:

Five Great Lessons
Parts of the Earth
Prehistoric Animals
Fundamental Needs of People
Concepts of Time (clock, calendar, telling time, BC/AD)
Planets, Stars, and other Astronomy Studies
Beginning studies of famous people (world leaders, artists, composers)

2nd grade:

Review of all of the above, but in more depth (the child doing some of their own research, for instance)
Timeline of Life Research (historic periods like Cambrian, Devonian, etc.)

3rd grade:

Review of all of the above, but in more depth (long term research projects)
Ancient Civilizations (Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Incan, Chinese, etc.)
Timelines of famous events (child’s own country)

4th grade:

Astronomy
Ancient Civilizations
Child’s Own Country (history, government)
World Events

5th and 6th grade:

A review of all of the above, at a more advanced level
Western Civilization
Systems of Government

Please note that every year, many of the same materials and presentations are repeated. The child will probably need to spend less time on materials they’ve done before (unless they decide to do some additional research on it) The benefits of repeating materials include:

1) Reviewing the material refreshes it in the child’s mind
2) The child has a chance to teach a younger child something they learned before about the subject
3) The child has a chance to bring new insight based on things they’ve learned since the last time they studied it
4) The child can bring their more advanced reading and writing skills to bear on the material

Also, please keep in mind that as with everything “Montessori”, these are just general guidelines and shouldn’t be strictly adhered to. Circumstances that influence when and how you study these subjects include the materials you have on hand, the children’s academic level, the children’s interest (or lack thereof) in the material, and possible state requirements you have to follow for testing or grading purposes.

Moving Past the Materials…

You might notice that for many of the topics I listed, there are no specific Montessori materials to study them. That’s okay! This is where the creativity of the children and the teacher come in. As I mentioned in the timeline idea, there are so many educational resources out there already: pictures, stickers, stories, flashcards, etc. Combined with the power of the internet, it’s fairly easy to find or make materials yourself.

Once children know how to research, they are free to go and learn on their own. Give them an encyclopedia or access to a safe computer (located in a public place) and let them go for it. No need to actually “create” any materials at this point.

In Montessori, we sometimes disparage workbooks and textbooks. Yet, I have found them handy for these sorts of studies. Workbooks can be cut apart and laminated to become hands-on materials. Textbooks can be used by the teacher as a guide to know what sorts of things to study. Sometimes I found myself reading aloud from a textbook to a group of children, pausing to insert additional info or to answer their questions. This keeps textbooks from becoming dull and boring.

Liven It Up!

I’m not sure why so many people dreaded history in school. Probably it was presented in a dreary way – with an emphasis on memorizing tedious facts and dates. I think history can be fascinating, especially when presented with the exciting backdrop of the beginning of the universe. Don’t make them memorize dates! Let them research the things that interest them. Throw in enough additional material so that they won’t have any “gaps”. Let them make dioramas, write plays, draw pictures, and anything else that livens up the past.