Carrots Are Orange

Montessori Parenting & Learning

  • Montessori
    • Principles
    • Curriculum
      • Geography
      • History
      • Language
      • Life Science
        • Botany
        • Zoology
      • Math
      • Peace
      • Practical Life
      • Sensorial
    • Classroom
    • Theory
    • Materials
    • Courses
    • Printables
  • Activities
    • Art
    • Fall
    • Montessori
    • Outdoor
    • Science
    • Summer
    • Fine Motor
  • Parenting
    • Montessori Toys
    • Montessori At Home
    • Mindfulness
    • Social & Emotional Learning
    • Special Needs
      • Anxiety In Kids
      • Gifted Children
      • Executive Functioning
      • Sensory Processing Disorder
  • Printables
  • Resources
    • Book Lists
    • Gift Guides
    • Montessori Materials
    • Montessori Toys
  • Newsletter
  • About
    • Contact
Home » Montessori » Teach Preschoolers about Whales with these Activities

Teach Preschoolers about Whales with these Activities

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure .

We’re heading to warmer weather in a  few weeks so we’re covering a few key and fun topics before we depart for Maui: Sea Turtles, Whales and Volcanoes. Here is the latest work we’ve done on our preschool whale unit.

sperm whale and bottlenose whale
Image Source: Wiki Commons

Preschool Whale Unit

Types of Whales – I printed out these Types of Whales 3 Part Cards and gathered up our [amazon_textlink asin=’B000GJ5GMW’ text=’Safari Whale Replica Toob to learn ‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’blogpost’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=”][amazon_textlink asin=’B000GJ5GMW’ text=’Safari Whale Replica Toob to learn ‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’blogpost’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=”]new language and do some matching. We talked about the relative sizes of whales, what they eat and what parts of the world in which they live. We also talked about what whales eat largely depending on whether they fall into the toothed or baleen group. Fascinating, really. We love to talk about krill!

Whale Parts of the Body – We took a closer look at the parts of a Humpback Whale’s body and talked about how they are mammals who give birth to babies and whose babies drink milk.

Movement – We looked at the common, incredible moves that whales make in and out of the water. We even tried to replicate them. My 3 year old does a mean breach.

Whale Species – I created sequence cards from these images to line up smallest to largest whale species. Then we looked at real images online. These cards were in black and white and only included seven types of whales. I let my sons color the black and white whales before we talked about the sizes of the whales and then put them in order. We also talked about measurement and how one whale would compare to another one in relative size using much smaller ratios, of course!

Map Work – We read Wonderful Journey by Gill McBarnet and studied the path Humpback Whales take every year to Hawaii and back. We also matched whales to their homes on our world map.

Sensorial – We used Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks to create a whale from shapes. Next I created a “Let’s Count Whales” activity where my son had to draw a line matching the number of whales to the appropriate number. I also really want to create this origami whale. Finally, we did a listening activity on whale songs. We explored whale sound bites online and then, in good fun, I tested his ears! He did pretty well!

Practical Life – I printed out two copies of a Humpback Whale on card stock and laminated them. For one, I cut out the image with an xacto knife to create a stencil. This work will help my 3 year old’s fine motor development. With the other, I left it be and fixed a piece of tracing paper over it with clothespins for my son to trace.

Whale Resist Painting – This whale art project was a fun introductory work that keeps us inspired!

Writing – I printed out “W-h-a-l-e” in large dotted font onto card stock and laminated the page for my son to work on his writing via tracing. Here is the FREE printable for the dotted lettered Whale page.

Books We’re Reading:

Well, that is a good start! :-)

Other resources:

  • Enchanted Learning
  • National Geographic for Kids Videos & Loads of Great Whale Information
  • Cetacean Station

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Marnie

Tagged With: Homeschool, Preschool

About Marnie Craycroft

Marnie hails from Maine where she spent summers buried in sand and winters buried in snow. She is the daughter of a nearly four decade veteran of the public school systems. Teaching has always been a part of her life. She founded Carrots Are Orange in 2010.

Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori learning and living website for parents and teachers.

Marnie graduated from Wesleyan University in 1999 with a BA in Economics. She spent nearly a decade working in investment management. In 2006, she earned her MA in business from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999 and currently lives in Boulder with her husband and three sons. She is Montessori trained. Her work has been featured on Apartment Therapy, Buzzfeed, PBS Kids, BabyCenter, the Melissa & Doug blog, Huffington Post, and WhattoExpect.com. Besides writing, passions include running (usually after her three sons), photography, and outdoor adventures.

« Preschool Homeschool Routine Template for Learning at Home
Themed Montessori Practical Life Shelves »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

  • 7 Powerful Benefits of Gardening for Kids
  • 5 Ways to Help Your Child Build Self-Esteem
  • How to Successfully Homeschool without that Thing We Call Curriculum: Unschooling 101
  • 12 Unique & Creative Activities with Seeds for Kids
  • Your One Stop Shop – The BEST Montessori Math Materials & Activities

Copyright © 2022 Carrots Are Orange · Disclosure & Copyright · Site by Design by Insight

  • 2