Fur-bearing animals, Montessori style!

I am very pleased with the way this Montessori-ish material turned out.

Background: A couple of years ago when we went to Alaska I picked up a bag of fur scraps at a souvenier shop. Though they were a beautiful and interesting mix of Alaskan wildlife furs, I was not sure what I would do with them. So, I squirreled them away, taking them out on occasion when the children asked to look at them, and more importantly feel them. JBug has been particularly fascinated with them lately, taking them out and rubbing them gently across her cheek, so I thought it would be a good time to add them to her work shelves.

Here is the basket full of fur scraps:

And here is what I made to go with them, to turn her fascination into a learning opportunity:

I made some animal cards (and labels) using the animals that I knew (or suspected) were included in the fur basket, 11 in all including wolf, moose, muskrat, rabbit, beaver and more. I tried to find photos that showed the texture and color of the hair well so that she could match not only the pictures and names, but try to match the fur scraps to the photos as well!

I cannot wait to present it to her tomorrow!

In keeping with that theme, and because, you know I can’t resist, her shelves this week will include a rice tray (looks like snow) and her arctic animals set (Arctic Toob) to make a little diorama, DrawWriteNow book 4 (The Polar Regions, The Arctic, The Antarctic (Draw Write Now, Book 4)) for art and copywork, her Alaska Alphabet book, the book One Small Square: Arctic, an ice experiment tray, an arctic food chain cut-and-paste activity, and for practical life she will be using her zipping dressing frame (to practice zipping up her parka), and cutting snowflakes.

I will also be pulling some activities from a great resource I got at Denali Park called the Alaska Wildlife Curriculum. A great resource about a great state!

I think it will be a fun week! Who knows, maybe the weather will cooperate and we may actually get some snow to go along!