Today I'm sharing a little about our Land, Air, Water Sorting Activity. I've found this to be a wonderful and engaging activity for my young three-year-old. He loves playing with the animals. He is still learning the names of some of these animals and although this is a Montessori early geography activity, I've found that it easily leads into animal study, specifically the study of feathers, fur, and scales.

We use a felt mat that has clearly defined areas for land, air and water. I've presented this with a basket of model Australian animals. For conservation and sense of place, it is important that young children have knowledge of and pride in the animals native to their area.

The child then sorts the animals according to their habitat - land, air or water. We can rotate in new animals to freshen up the activity or we can add modes of transport for sorting such as an airplane, boat, car. The Toobs In the Water, In the Sky, and On the Road are useful for this. 

Here we have a kangaroo, rainbow lorikeet, numbat, corroboree frog, green tree frog, ringtail possum, koala, wombat, platypus, emu, blue fairy wren, kookaburra, and black swan. I want this activity to make sense, as the water animals are freshwater animals, I haven't included saltwater animals, these are all animals that could live in the same area.

Need more Land, Air, Water Sorting ideas?

This mat is bold and really lovely. All of these Land, Air, Water mats are DIY and that makes them so doable!

I love the different levels of blue in the ocean. There are labels on each area.

A felt mat including a tree, this one has a few Australian animals too. 

This mat has been made by gluing the pieces onto a felt background, no sewing required. Super simple.

Another no-sew option, Emily has painted a fabric canvas. It looks fantastic! The scale of this is good, it's nice and large which is especially useful if two or more children will work on it together. 

A lovely felt mat that has been glued and then stitched.

This one has a felt mat with some cotton wool clouds, and some card sorting. 

This is a good idea if you are short on model animals. 

An awesome DIY - paint the land, air, water on cardboard. This looks like an up-cycled box. Absolutely doable. 

You can find Maria's gorgeous cards here in Spanish and English. 

Monte Mother also using beautiful picture mats. 

My three-year-old would love this transport sorting. 

This is a watercolor printable Land, Air, Water activity by Studio Montessori (on Etsy). 

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