Let me start by stating my deep love for Montessori. So much of what I have found within the teachings of Maria Montessori have profoundly changed how I approach teaching, curriculum development, and learning in general. May I also state from the start that we are not "Montessori" - we do not follow the curriculum that has been laid out and is used throughout the world.
I do find myself turning to that curriculum for inspiration when I am observing, reflecting, planning, and creating. There's so many brilliant ideas that I find invaluable. Those ideas, in turn, spark new ideas for lessons, presentations, and projects. Things get added onto or changed. This is the case here with the presentation of earth, water, and air.
My initial presentation of the idea was an exploratory exercise, very much in line with the Montessori presentation intended for preschool and early elementary age children. I provide three trays, simple explanations of each element, and then let the children briefly explore and play. The earth tray contained a jar of dirt, leaves, sticks, olives from our garden, and land animals. The water tray contained a jar of water, shells, river rocks, and water animals. The fourth tray contained an empty jar (filled with air), feathers, and birds.
Once they had a solid grasp on the three different elements, we moved on to sorting exercises. The first was an animal sort using a mini landscape I created out of felt. A tray with the landscape and a basket of wood animals sat out on our play shelves for a couple weeks. They enjoyed sorting, as well as simply using the landscape for an imaginative play backdrop.
Rémy decided he wanted to shake things up and created his own sort using vehicles. He found boats, airplanes, helicopters, cars, construction vehicles, and trains, and added them all to the landscape. It was a very crowded tray!
The second sorting exercise started with the challenge to fill three glass containers provided. They had to think through where to find earth, water, and air. I love these little challenges. They really stretch a preschooler or toddler to problem solve. To fill the air jar, Rémy held it up to an air purifier that was blowing near by, and I thought that was pretty ingenious.
Then I asked them to sort through a pile of famous paintings. Some contained fields or forests, some contained rivers or oceans, and some contained birds or angels flying. The first couple pictures we looked at, I asked them to tell me what they saw. Then I would ask where they thought the picture should be placed. Some could fit under different categories, as both land and water was shown. But in these instances, there's no wrong answer.
The last activity that I presented was an invitation to create earth, water, and air process art. During our forest school, I brought watercolor paper, three glass jars, water droppers, and water bottle straws. I laid everything out on flat rocks I found near a lovely little stream. I then demonstrated how they could use each of the materials provided to create art.
The dirt acted as a mark making device. They could use it to rub on color, or combine with water to create a darker paint. The water bound the dirt, creating paint or glue to hold the dirt to the paper. The straws allowed the kids to blow the dirt and water around the paper to produce various design patterns.
They loved practicing with the droppers, and enjoyed blowing with the straws. But part of the fun was just the act of making art outdoors by a stream. After the activity was done, they were able to run off and play with the earth, water, and air around them.
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