Water and landforms are one of the first Montessori lessons my daughter recalls from her Primary years at her Montessori School when she was just three years old. As part of the Montessori program, Water and landforms are presented to the child every year, as each year and each plane of development will offer different learning opportunities and experiences (to learn more about the Montessori program, check out our blog). Each year she was presented the lessons, she picked up something new until she mastered the lesson. At eleven years old, almost eight years of learning about Water and landforms, she still loves to read Christy Hale's Water Land – Land and Water Forms Around the World, published in 2018 by Roaring Brook Press.
What is so great about this book?
The illustrations and the cutout pages! We have read this book several times, and each time, my daughter uses her fingers to trace the pages and cutouts, and as she traces them, she says the name of the term. Ms. Hale's illustrations of each Water and Landforms terms are unique as they are a great depiction of the term and a story to be uncovered!
The book illustrates and provides a chart describing the following Water and landforms:
Lake
Bay
Strait
System of Lakes
Gulf
Island
Cape
Isthmus
Archipelago
Peninsula
Also included in the book is a map of the world identifying each water and landform type and a list of examples from around the world and location.
BONUS:
Ms. Hale does have a website offering the following resources:
Classroom Map for the Birds – Introducing Bird's Eye View and symbols
Water Land: Telling Stories with Pictures with Christy Hale (13min) Video
Buy the book from Nature's Materials Bookshop at Bookshop.org.
If you are looking for additional materials about Water and Landforms – check these products out: