Montessori Continent Boxes: Antarctica

Our Antarctica Box is finally DONE!!! I've been working on this one all week to have it ready for our Thursday together.

In my opinion Antarctica is the easiest continent to start with for the under 3 crowd. It's just ice and lots of cute animals.

Let's take a look inside the box.

Books and Media

• Polar Lands by Margaret Hynes 
• Antarctica (Rookie Read-About Geography) by Allan Fowler  
• The Magic School Bus Arctic Adventure Reader (Level 2) by Gail Herman 
• The Magic School Bus in the Arctic: A Book About Heat by Joanna Cole (I'm leaving this one out for now until Mr. B is older). 
• March Of The Penguins DVD
• Disneynature: Earth DVD ("Better Than March Of The Penguins") 
• Blank Note Cards (I'm going to leave these out until Mr. B can write. We can use them to write letters about what we're learning).

Toys

• Lego City Arctic Snowmobile 
• Lego Penguin 
• TY Jingle Beanies Icicles - Penguin 
• Earth Ball (found at Michaels for $2)
• Arctic TOOB (found at Michaels for $6 after 40% off coupon). 

Printables 

• Emperor Penguin Life cycle (leaving this out for now)
• Antarctica Labeled Map (from Wikipedia)--definitely keeping this one for later. 
• Antarctica Map with Pictures (photocopied from The Seven Continents of the World Jigsaw Book)
• Penguin Mask
• Food Chain (there are so many of these but I found this one the least overwhelming). 
• Antarctica (Wikipedia) 
• Photos of wildlife 

For Next Time

When Mr. B is older I would like to add:

• Who's Eating Who? A printable book from the Australian Department of the Environment 
• Science experiment ideas from this website 
• Penguin TOOB 
• Misc coloring pages found all over
• Paper Dolls 
• Diorama
• Board Game 

Goals

• I would like Mr. B to be able to find the Arctic and Antarctica on a map/globe
• I would like Mr. B to become familiar with some of the animals who live in the Arctic and Antarctica. 
• FUN FUN FUN

The Reveal: 

I left the box for Mr. B to find this morning and he was really excited. His favorite parts were the mask (which he wore all day), the Earth ball and the TOOB arctic toys. He's been trying to remember their names all day. We read the Magic School Bus reader at breakfast (about the Arctic) and the Antarctica (Rookie Read-About Geography) book at Lunch. 

Overall, this project was a success!