Invertebrate-Vertebrate Unit Study – Montessori Activities

Homeschooling is so great because you can be flexible and go with the flow when the need arises! We were all prepared to start school with a unit on rocks when my wonderful homeschooling friend offered to give us some flatworms called Planarian. Her family had studied them and their amazing properties.  We jumped at the chance to do something new and delved into a week-long study of invertebrates.

It has been a while since ED (my preschooler) has done any Montessori science, so we started with that.  We brought out our living and non-living cards. I handed each of the kids a stack and they divided the cards into two piles. We have some free living -nonliving cards at this post.

Next, we talked about how scientists classify things, grouping them so they have things in common.  For example, living things have been divided into five kingdoms.  We talked briefly about the different characteristics of the animal, plant, fungi, protists and prokaryotes kingdoms. Then I handed a stack of cards to the kids, and had them decide where they belonged.  I worked with ED on this portion.

We have the 5 Animal Kingdom cards free here: Vertebrate-Invertebrate Montessori Sort Cards

Once we had them divided into different categories we put away everything but the animal cards.  We talked about how some animals have backbones and some don’t.  We looked at the vertebrate cards by Cathie at The Helpful Garden that show the backbone of the various vertebrate groups. (She has tons of great stuff she’s posted for free. Be sure to check out her website!) Then we divided our animal kingdom cards into vertebrate and invertebrate cards.

The kids then spent time working on the packet for their science notebooks, drawing pictures of several vertebrate and invertebrate animals. I loved how carefully DD examined the photo of the tiger as she drew its stripes!

We have vertebrate and invertebrate worksheets at this post: Animal Unit – Vertebrate and Invertebrate Worksheets and Activities

 After that we moved into some hands-on science exploration. More about that tomorrow!

Be sure to see the related posts:

• We also studied Earthworms: Hands-On Invertebrate Fun! Part I – Earthworms and the earthworm life cycle
• And Planaria (a type of flatworm): Hands-On Invertebrate Fun! Part II – Planarian – which you can order.  They are easy to care for and are fascinating to study because they regenerate.
• Animals and Their Groups
• Animals and their Characteristics
• Animals Around the World – Free Montessori 3-Part Cards
• Animal Portfolio Project (for ages 8-10 or so)
• Free Montessori World Pin Map

Other Preschool related posts you might be interested in:

• Preschool at Home: Activities you can do with your 2-4 Year Olds, Fine Motor Skills
• Preschool at Home: Learning Letters
• Preschool at Home: Alphabet Activities
• Preschool at Home: Handwriting
• Preschool at Home: Science for 2-4 Year Olds
• Preschool Montessori: Vertebrate and Invertebrate Study and Free Cards
• Preschool at Home: A Few Math Ideas for the 2 1/2-3 year old crowd
• Preschool Math Activities (K4) Montessori Math and More
• Preschool at Home: Lapbooks
• You might also be interested in the post: Homeschool Preschool Year in Review which was a recap of many of our preschool activities this past year.
• Preschool Geography: Activities for learning about where we live in the world, Montessori world map work and more
• Preschool Geography: Maps and More
• The Seven Continents and World Landmarks

Related Montessori-Style Posts:

• You might also be interested in last weeks post where I shared the free Montessori World Pin Map.

• Rainforest Plants (from around the world)

• Biomes, Ecosystems, Habitats

• Preschool Geography: Where I Live

• The Seven Continents and World Landmarks

Other related posts you might be interested in:

•  20 Science Activities for Early Elementary
• Animal Unit: Vertebrate-Invertebrate Animals Worksheet Packet (40+ Pages)

• Simple Machines Unit

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page. Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter! ~Liesl