Nomenclature Cards and Parts Booklets - What a Little Child Taught Me

I have formed a new friendship with the Nomenclature and 3-Part Cards and their subsequent Parts of Booklets this year.  Last year a few of the children really loved doing the cards and the booklets, while most of others have shown no real interest in them.  This year I have been hoping to interest more children in these lovely little cards and booklets that I have spent so much time creating (literally), laminating, cutting, coloring, binding etc.  They are great works that help integrate learning across the areas of the classroom.  They can be a pre-reading, reading, writing, coloring, story-telling, show-off to parents, memory building, science, geography, math, sensorial work.  You might be getting the picture.

WELL... this year our class has had the most wonderful thing happen, AND it was child directed.  About the third week into school I had a 4 1/2 year old, who is driven by a lovely inner voice, do the Parts of the Plant and Parts of the Fruit Nomenclature Cards at the same time.  He then made the Parts of Booklets as well.  Another child saw his work and wanted to do it too.  Both were very accomplished at their work.  At the end of the day they asked if they could read their books to the class in AUTHOR'S CHAIR (they knew this from last year and Writer's Workshop).  Of course I let them, and everyone clapped for their wonderful and challenging work.  I could have chosen to save the Author's chair for books that the children had independently created, but I am so glad I didn't.  We will make an extra special note when a child makes a book All-By-Themselves for Author's Chair.

The magic happened the next day.  Multiple children asked me if they could create their own books in order to read them to the class.  One child said... "So when I finish the Nomenclature Cards I can make a booklet right?"  I said that once she had mastered the nomenclature cards she could create the booklet.  The children spread the word and the Nomenclature Cards have NOT sat on the shelf gathering dust (that a child would clean off) this year.  The valuable lesson the children taught me is this: There is such beauty in sharing your work with your friends, and such a good feeling.  As an adult I recognize this in myself.  It is one reason I have this blog.  I love to share what I have created with people who appreciate and can really use them.  Why would it be any different for children?

I just have to say... Follow the Child, they are our best teacher.

Solar System Nomenclature Cards

This is the same child doing the Nomenclature Cards and the Parts of Book in the next Picture.


Solar System Parts of Cards

This Parts of Booklet is pre-stapled because last year I noticed how frustrated the children were 
about this booklet.  They kept getting confused which planet was which.  I have some unstapled 
sets for the older kids.

Parts of the Body Nomenclature Cards

This child ended up getting one more rug out to hold all the name cards you can see at the top 
of the picture for this work.  There really are a lot of cards to this work.  Almost enough to break it 
into two sets, but they really like it together so I have kept them that way.  The Tray is from 
Montessori Research and Development.




Parts of the Plant Booklet

This child did not want to write the words to her booklet this day.  I let her know that as 
soon as she "publishes" a book - meaning that it is colored, with all the names written and 
stapled - she can read it to the group.

Cosmic Nesting Boxes

Summertime is such a busy time for a Montessori teacher.  Saturday has been spent getting some Cosmic Nesting Boxes ready for our Solar System Studies/Cosmic Education studies for this year.

A gorgeous set of Cosmic Nesting Boxes can be found here as well as the Cosmic Nesting Box Lesson as a free download.  The child gains a greater understanding of where they belong in the universe. It can somehow be grounding for little children to have this information, and to use the boxes over and over again.  I have seen the cosmic nesting boxes used as a reference when creating stories during writers workshop.

I have wanted this set for my classroom, but did not want to spend the $85 for them.  Now that I have finished with this project I believe I love these boxes much more than I ever would the pre-made set.

I spent a long time during the school year looking at thrift stores for a set of nesting boxes but never could find a set.  I ended up getting a cheap Melissa and Doug alphabet set for $10 on Amazon and spray painting them black.  It took several coats to cover the previous images entirely.  I also used the  extra coats of paint since children will use them.

You can see my 10 year old's bike helmet in the background :)

Next I printed off images of the following to paint on the boxes:

• Galaxy - largest box
• Solar System
• Earth
• North America (since that is where we live)
• United States
• Utah
• West Valley City (since that is where our school is located)
• Dancing Moose (since that is our school)
• A Boy and a Girl
• An Atom (to represent the energy in the child) - smallest box

I traced the outline of each image onto the respective box and filled in the lines with white paint to help the images show up better on the black background.

This image shows the galaxy already finished as well as the water for the earth filled in.  The rest of the images are just filled in with white.

I choose to make the images the same colors as the Nienhuis maps.  These are the same colors used in our classroom.

Once I was finished painting all the fronts of the boxes I let them dry for a day and then sprayed many, many coats of clear coat varnish on them.  I really love them and I know that it may very well be because I did them myself.  Even so, they are beautiful.  I will place them in a lovely basket with an ecru cloth liner when it is time to put them out on the shelf.

I am certain that the children will really take to them.  I am most interested in how long the children will be interested in choosing them from the shelf after our lesson and, subsequently how well they stand up to use during this year.  I may find myself needing to make another set from sturdier material at the end of the year.

This project probably ran me around $20 with boxes, paint and varnish.

Solar System Nomenclature Cards

We will begin learning about the Planets and the Solar System in just over a month.  I really like the images on this set of nomenclature cards much more than any other.  When you link to the file the images will look grainy, but will download beautifully.  I have a companion "little book" that I am finishing up.  When it is completed I will upload it here as well.

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.

Solar System Nomenclature Cards
click on picture to link to file 

I have a companion "little book" that I have just finished up. The only images that I couldn't get were meteor and galaxy.

Solar System Little Book
click on picture to link to file