Vocabulary Building - Toddler Anatomy Work
Once your child knows the names of many animals, many foods, many objects, how about introducing anatomy or "parts of" work? My toddler has loved learning new words like "thorax", "antenna", "abdomen", "mandibles" and "proboscis"!! This is excellent work for the child in the sensitive period for language.
We do this work together. These cards are not designed for toddlers, I use them as prompts and my toddler also points to them while naming the parts. The models are really important to this work.
Insects are fascinating to young toddlers. Model insects are useful as they allow the child to closely study and observe the animal's physical form, often real insects are too small or too fast for the toddler to accurately observe them.
We use the Learning Resources Jumbo Insects. Our anatomy cards are all from Etsy including:
Love ladybug work.
Models allow the child to closely see the parts of the insects, only second to studying the real thing!
This model grasshopper is the best I've found.
We can apply this same method of learning to vehicles or other areas of interest. We use a Bruder Tractor and My First Discoveries Tractor Book. I've made a mini book of the parts of a tractor using three part cards (from TpT), but only printing the control cards and securing them with a hinged ring so my toddler can flip through it.
There is a lot of potential for this anatomy and naming work with food too. Today we used an apple. Fruits and vegetables in particular can be fun to cut open and name. Apple Anatomy Poster is from Tanglewood Hollow.
Related articles:
- Notes to a Montessori Parent - Remember to give the child real, technical or scientific names.
- Montessori at Home - examples of our language baskets and keeping them relevant.
- A Montessori Reminder: Teach the Real Before the Abstract.
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