We’ve been fervently studying animal classification around here, and the Tree of Life material from Waseca Biomes has quickly become a favorite hands-on exploration; it’s been used many times over the last couple of weeks. The material, a tree puzzle, is intended for advanced learners — and between you and me, I have no idea how to pronounce half of the branches on the tree of life, let alone remember them without studying Waseca’s guide. Yet, despite that, I made it work for my kids (who aren’t ready for the full tree or even some of the groundwork presentations).
It’s as simple as just studying the branches we need as we go.
While in Montessori philosophy it’s best to start with the big picture then refine, and ideally the full material presentation fits that tradition, we’re happy to find the right level for us and make that work.
You’ll notice we don’t have the handy mat that comes with the current bundle because we bought our tree before that package became available. We did fine without it though. The set also comes with taxonomy fact cards to use for research. However, there is too much reading for my kids, and it’s over their heads. For now anyway.
I’m excited though that we will return to this work year after year, lessons building in complexity.
Game
We approached the tree several different ways. The favorite was when we played Go Fish with the leaves — I kind of adjusted the rules to fit the cards: basically I made sure we had an even number of each class of animal, so that we could match any mammal to any mammal, any reptile to reptile, bird to bird etc.
Each child takes 5 leaves at random and sets down any pairs he or she has to start. The other leaves are face down in a basket; the youngest goes first; in this case Mike: he choose a player at random and asked for a class by name (ex: if Mike has a rabbit he asks his sister if she has a mammal etc). If she has a mammal (ex: mouse) she hands it over, and he puts down his match. If not he draws a leaf from the basket. Whenever a person runs out of leaves he takes a leaf.
They played this many times and enjoyed it. We just had fun with it. The leaves are so sturdy and beautiful its hard to not want to find extensions for them.
Mike and Mary are gaining a good understanding of the different animal classes. Josie’s having a really hard time with classification in general. Something isn’t clicking, but we played this Go Fish together, and she had fun regardless. I like to think some of it will stick.
I’m a little bit addicted to Waseca Biomes; their materials are well-made, well-researched and definite timesavers; unlike workbook curriculum, they can be reused each year. I don’t have any affiliation with Waseca Biomes — in fact I think I must bug them by perpetually tagging them on Instagram in all our pictures — but I’m sharing the love all the same. This Tree of Life is a winner.
