Earth Science Climate Zones and Seasons Sun and Earth Montessori Cards and Printable Booklets

Item description

Need fun materials for your Montessori Sun and Earth science lessons? Kids love learning how our tilted Earth and the sun cause our climate zones and each season, solstice, and equinox with these nomenclature cards and booklets! Originally developed as a Montessori Earth Science material, these are great for any elementary science unit.

The Climate Zones and Seasons cards and booklets are an interactive follow up activity kids can use in lower and upper elementary earth science lessons to have fun learning about how the Sun and Earth interact to create each season, equinox, and solstice. Northern and Southern Hemisphere perspectives of the cards and booklets are included.

Kids enjoy laying out the cards, then filling in the booklet’s drawings and labels. These are great follow up activities to show mastery of the concepts presented in the lesson.

Here’s What You Get

*Entire set of control cards and labels included for both northern and southern hemisphere perspectives*

• 15 picture cards
• Terms (listed in the order presented in the booklets, designed to follow a year from the Northern Hemisphere perspective):
• axis
• equator
• vernal equinox
• Tropic of Cancer
• summer solstice
• Arctic Circle
• midnight sun
• autumnal equinox
• Tropic of Capricorn
• winter solstice
• Antarctic Circle
• polar night
• frigid zones
• temperate zones
• torrid zones

• 15 labels cards

• 15 labeled definition cards

• 15 mute definition cards (with blank where term would appear)

• 30 control cards
• 15 for 2 part cards
• 15 for 3 part cards

• 2 blank booklets
• 2 part booklet
• for students to color in the picture and write in the label
• 3 part booklet
• for students to color in the term, write in the label, and write the term in the blank of the definition

Ideas for Use

When teaching Lower Elementary, I presented this unit after States of Matter and before Composition of the Earth.  In my Upper Elementary classroom, I included this card set in my Geology unit. 

The contents of the card set could be broken up into several sub-categories:

• Imaginary lines that divide the earth:  axis, equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Arctic Circle, and Antarctic Circle

• Where the sun’s rays hit the earth during the year:  vernal equinox, summer solstice, midnight sun, autumnal equinox, winter solstice, and polar night

• The names of the climate zones delineated by the above information:  torrid zone, temperate zones, and frigid zones

After working with the cards in these separate sub-categories, the booklets can be used for practicing all the concepts together.  

The materials can be used for 5 different activities (listed here from easiest to most difficult:

• Picture – Label Match (check with 2 part control cards)
• Child’s 2 Part Booklet (for the child to color and write in labels to show understanding)
• Picture – Labeled Definition Match (check with 3 part control cards)
• Picture – Label – Mute Definition Match (check with 3 part control cards)
• Child’s 3 Part Booklet (for the child to color and write in labels on definitions to show understanding

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