Zoology Puzzles (Parts of an Animal)

Direct aim. To learn the names of the external parts of animals.

Indirect aims, the ones you will not see at once

Wooden puzzles about 24 cm square, one animal each. Each part has a knob. Montessori Outlet, Nienhuis and Alison's sell them singly; Montessori Outlet also sells name cards for all five.

A real animal to watch if you can: fish in a bowl, birds at a feeder, a pet.

Picture and label cards later, for children who read.

A table and a tray for the pieces.

Zoology puzzles are later than Montessori's books. Her 1900 lectures show a lesson on the hen that starts with the live bird in the courtyard and pictures of it among other birds.

1. 1Bring the fish puzzle and a picture of a real fish, or a fish bowl, to the table.Say "I'm going to show you the parts of a fish." Then nothing more.
2. 2Lift out the tail piece by its knob. Trace its edge, then the empty space. Lay it below.Silent A slow lift by the knob.
3. 3Do the same with the fins, one at a time, then the head.Silent Same tracing for each piece.
4. 4Name the parts in three periods: "This is the tail. This is a fin. This is the head."Say "This is the tail." Then "Show me a fin." Then "What is this?"
5. 5Point to the same parts on the real fish or the picture.Say "Here is its tail." Point to the real fish and wait.
6. 6Invite the child to put the puzzle together, naming the parts.Say "Can you put it back?" Then sit back.
7. 7On later days, the bird, then the other animals one at a time.Silent One animal per lesson.

A real fish moving its fins and tail in the bowl.

Birds at a feeder, using their beaks.

The turtle's shell in one piece, the horse's long legs.

Parts that every animal shares: head, eyes, mouth.

The puzzle frame. Each part fits only its own space. For the names, the picture or the real animal and the adult's three periods are the check.

Montessori’s name for this check is the control of error.

• Matching picture cards and label cards to the puzzle parts
• Watching birds at a feeder and naming what they're using: beak, wings, tail
• Comparing two puzzles: which parts do a fish and a bird share?
• Drawing an animal from life and labelling its parts
• Sorting animal pictures into those with fins and those with wings

Variations

This work needs only the material, so it has no printable of its own. The shelf plan below places it among the other works for the same age.

Free to print for your family, no email needed. Print at 100%, not “fit to page”, so the drawings keep their scale. Every printable on the site is listed on the printables page.

Ready for the first presentation

Ready for the next lesson

Puzzle knobs and small pieces are choking-size for a toddler.

Wash hands after handling pets or their food.

We have not bought the paid homeschool curricula, so they are not listed here.

1. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Elementary Material (1917)

   Part VII, Object Lessons

   A lesson on the hen shows a paper model, the live hen in the courtyard, a slide, its print in the reading book, and pictures of the hen among other birds.

   Each new step of an object lesson is taken on a different day, and the word is always connected with the object.

   Object lessons never begin with the word but always with the object, describing first its qualities, then its uses, then its origin.

2. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method (1912)

   Chapter X, Nature in Education

   In the Children's Houses at Milan the children take turns caring for a pair of fowl, and a child may be found watching the fish gliding in the waters of the fountain.

   Little ones are easily interested even in earthworms and the larvae of insects, without the horror that adults often feel.

   After patient care of the brooding hen, the children find chickens peeping about her, and baby rabbits appear in the hutch.

Lesson text and the scope and sequence are CC BY 4.0: reuse them with credit to Owen Wren, Homeschool Montessori, and a link. Photos and illustrations are all rights reserved. Terms.