Maple Tree Montessori Salmon Arm

Learning Through Nature 🌿

In our Nature-Based Afternoon Program, one of our curriculum classes is Nature Study—an opportunity for chilWasecaBiomes them through real-life experiences, observation, and hands-on learning.

We encourage children to move from the concrete to the abstract by using their senses, observing nature, asking questions, forming hypotheses, and sharing their ideas and interests. 🌱

We explored the biomes of the world. Children learned what a biome is and why biomes are important, compared different biomes, observed the natural world around them, and connected their new learning to previously explored concepts such as ecosystems and symbiosis.

We used the Waseca Biome Map to explore the different biomes of our world and make connections between the environments, plants, animals, and people that inhabit them. You can see the map in one of the photos from our exploration.

Learning about biomes helps children understand that every living thing has a place and an important role in our shared world. 🌎

🍓 From Garden to Table: A Living Botany Experience 🍓

The children experienced the full cycle of growth, care, and transformation as they tended to strawberries in our garden.

Throughout the season, they observed the plants closely—watering, noticing changes, and watching the small green fruits slowly ripen under the sun. When harvest time arrived, the excitement was quiet but deeply focused: careful hands picked each strawberry with intention and care.

Back inside, the work continued. The children prepared the strawberries for food preparation—washing, slicing, and sharing the fruit together as part of practical life work. This simple act connected the garden directly to nourishment and daily living.

To extend the learning, the children explored a felt puzzle of the strawberry plant, identifying and naming the parts of the plant—roots, leaves, flower, and fruit. They then worked with nomenclature cards, matching images and labels to deepen scientific vocabulary and reinforce the connection between observation and language.

In Montessori education, this is where understanding becomes real:

🌱 the hand, the mind, and the environment working together
🌱 observation turning into knowledge
🌱 care becoming responsibility

What began as a plant in the soil became food on the table—and meaning in the child’s experience.

🍓 Learning is not separate from life. It is life, carefully prepared.

There’s something quietly powerful happening here.

A nearly three-year-old child sits with a simple task: steeping tea. Not pretend play. Real work. Water has been poured, the timer is set, and now comes the part many adults underestimate: waiting. Three minutes. No shortcuts.

In a Montessori environment, this moment is not incidental. It is intentional.

Concentration is not taught through instruction. It is developed through experience. When a child is given purposeful, hands-on work that has a clear beginning, middle, and end, something shifts. Attention deepens. The body stills. The mind organizes itself around the task.

Here, the child is tracking time, resisting the urge to rush, and holding a sequence in mind: steep, wait, pour. These are early executive functioning skills—focus, self-regulation, and working memory, emerging naturally through meaningful activity.

Practical Life work like tea preparation, may appear simple, but it carries layered developmental value:
• Precision of movement (pouring, handling tools carefully)
• Sequencing and order
• Patience and delayed gratification
• Independence and confidence

Most importantly, it builds the child’s capacity to concentrate—arguably one of the most critical foundations for all future learning.

When children are trusted with real tasks, they rise to meet them. And when they are given the time and space to repeat these tasks, concentration strengthens—not through pressure, but through purpose.

This is what high-quality early education looks like: not faster, not louder, not more—but deeper.

Because a child who can concentrate is a child who can learn.

"We must study the correlation between life and the environment. In nature all is correlated. This is the purpose of nature. Nature is not concerned just with the conservation of individual life or with the betterment of itself. It is a harmony, a plan of construction". – Maria Montessori

At Maple Tree Montessori, our gardens and outdoor spaces are a living reflection of this idea.

Here, the environment is not separate from the child’s learning, it is part of it. Every pathway, garden bed, and quiet corner is intentionally designed to support curiosity, independence, and connection. Children observe the slow unfolding of the seasons, tend to living things with care, and experience firsthand the quiet harmony Montessori so beautifully described.

Our outdoor spaces are not simply places to play, they are places to belong. Places where learning is rooted in real life, and where children grow alongside the natural world that surrounds them.

Our Montessori environment took a journey to Asia! Through theme-based experiences, children explored the diverse cultures and traditions of this impressive continent in a way that sparks curiosity, global awareness and meaningful discovery.

Practical Life activities like using chopsticks and spooning dumplings support the development of fine motor control, coordination, and concentration; building independence through purposeful work and preparing the hand for writing and literacy.

Celebrating traditions like the dragon dance during Chinese New Year nurtured curiosity, respect, and global awareness.

Our study of the Red-crowned crane and other Asian species encouraged observation, scientific thinking, classification, and a deeper connection to the natural world. The child is engaged in purposeful work that requires focus and repetition, building confidence through excellence.

This is how abstract thinking begins before numbers, formulas, or symbols.

This is the child encountering order, proportion, and relationship. The hand feels what the mind will later name.

It is a quiet preparation for complex ideas, built through repetition, attention to detail and the senses.

In Montessori, abstraction and critical thinking grow from concrete experiences: making learning lasting and meaningful.

The Sensorial area in Montessori helps children make sense of the world by experiencing with materials that isolate qualities, one at a time. As seen in the photos, the Red Rods invite an understanding of length; the Pink Tower offers the child an opportunity to explore dimension and size; and the Cylinder Blocks and Knobless Cylinders support the discrimination of diameter and height.

When understanding is rooted in experience, it doesn’t fade but it transforms.

🌱 In true Montessori fashion, our children didn’t just learn about pumpkins this fall—they lived the life cycle.
🌼 In the spring, they planted pumpkin seeds with care, tended them through the summer months, and watched with awe as vines stretched, flowers bloomed, and pumpkins began to grow. This fall, they harvested their pumpkins, bringing the full cycle into focus—from seed to fruit.

🧺 Their experiences extended across all areas of the classroom:
🎃 They explored the internal parts of the pumpkin, using their senses to observe, sort, and classify seeds, pulp, and rind at the sensory table.

🫙Afternoons at Maple Tree are filled with enriching activities. Our Cooking & Baking class baked and pureed real pumpkins to create a homemade pumpkin spread. The spread was then placed into jars and used for practicing food preparation and independence by spreading it onto crackers during class time.

🥧Students also made pumpkin tarts during afternoon enrichment, learning practical life skills and building community through shared food experiences.

📚 As part of the theme-based curriculum, the shelves were intentionally prepared with materials across all areas of learning. Children engaged with life cycle sequencing cards, explored pumpkin-inspired counting, patterning, and sorting in math, and worked with language materials featuring pumpkin vocabulary, labelling, and matching.

🌿 Each activity was designed to support the child’s development while deepening their understanding of pumpkins through authentic, meaningful connections across the curriculum.

🚜 To conclude this immersive experience, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch for a hayride, and each child picked a pumpkin to bring back for upcoming pumpkin science investigations. This journey honoured their connection to nature, fostered independence, and encouraged a deep respect for where our food comes from.

✨ This is the beauty of Montessori: real experiences, meaningful work, and joyful learning rooted in the rhythm of the natural world.

At Maple Tree Montessori, we believe that children learn best when their curiosity is nurtured through hands-on, meaningful experiences. That’s why our theme-based curriculum is such a vibrant part of our program—it allows children to explore big ideas through interconnected lessons that make learning exciting and memorable.

In September, our classrooms have been buzzing with excitement as we've explored a unit on apples! Here are just a few of the ways our students dove deeply into apple-inspired learning:

🌱 Life Cycle of an Apple Tree – From tiny seed to blossoming tree, the children discovered how apples grow and change through the seasons.
🪰 Coddling Moth Study – We learned about this tiny but impactful insect and how it affects apple orchards—a great way to introduce natural science, ecosystems, and organic pest control methods.

🍏 Apple Varieties – Did you know there are over 7,500 types of apples? We explored a few favourites, comparing colours, textures, and tastes.

👅 Apple Taste Test – Sweet, tart, crunchy, or soft—students sampled and voted for their favourite apple varieties. Students were introduced to tallying and graphing when the class counted the results — a delicious way to develop math skills through sensory exploration.

🎤 Special Guest Speaker – A huge thank you to Ashley from Peterson Orchard for visiting our school! He shared his knowledge of apple farming and what it’s like to care for an orchard. The children loved seeing his engaging presentation and hearing his real-life orchard stories.

🍂 September was a flavourful and fascinating month, and we’re so proud of how our young learners are developing their curiosity, knowledge, and appreciation for the natural world.

🍂 Celebrating the Harvest Moon, Autumn Equinox & the Spirit of Thanksgiving

🧄 Last November, our children lovingly planted garlic in the garden, saying “goodnight” to each clove as they tucked them in for winter. They waited patiently, and by early spring, they were filled with wonder as tiny green shoots peeked through the soil. This summer, they harvested the garlic and hung it to dry in the shade.

🌕 Now, in celebration of the Autumn Equinox (Sept 22nd), the Harvest Moon (October 7th), and Thanksgiving (October 13th), Maple Tree has completed another joyful harvest — root vegetables!

🥔 The potatoes were a favourite! In the spring, each child dug a hole and planted a whole potato, mounding soil throughout the summer to help them grow strong. Digging them up this fall was like striking gold — each discovery celebrated with excitement!

🥕 The carrots and beets were planted in tidy rows. At harvest, the children saw the importance first-hand of thinning the lines as carrots grow, as a few came up twisted together in a loving embrace — a sweet reminder of nature’s lessons.

🚿 Back in the classroom, a wash station was set up. The children snipped green tops for our class rabbit and scrubbed the veggies clean, preparing the vibrant veggies for their harvest baskets to take home to share with their families.

✏️ Finally, the children practiced their sequencing and fine motor skills in the creation of a beautiful, bound recipe booklet. As they carefully coloured and compiled their booklets, the children gained a good understanding of the following steps when they brought the harvest baskets home to prepare a Harvest Moon Roast for their family.

🙏 As we approach Thanksgiving, this experience has given our children a deeper understanding of where their food comes from and a genuine appreciation for the work, patience, and care involved in growing it. What better way to give thanks than by sharing a meal they helped bring to life?

🌟🚀 Blast Off into PJ Day at Maple Tree! 🚀🌟

What a stellar day we had celebrating PJ Day with an out-of-this-world space theme! Our little astronauts came dressed in their comfiest PJs, ready for adventure. Here's a peek at the fun:

🛸 Waffle Intermission – Because no space mission is complete without a tasty fuel-up!

🚀 Funky Hairstyles – From wild hairdos to cosmic curls, our space crew was looking out of this world!

🪐 Space Tattoos – We rocketed into some fun with space-themed tattoos!

🐻 Teddy Bear Parade – And, of course, no PJ Day is complete without a teddy bear parade! Our little ones marched proudly with their cuddly friends.

A huge thank you to our educators who helped make this day a blast! 🌟