There are rich and varied concepts to explore with Biomes and Cosmic Curriculum in Lower Elementary classrooms. The classroom package includes some of the materials introduced in Primary with exciting new additions. With independent reading skills students can dig deeper into the lessons of plants, animals, water, soil, air, and the Sun. The packages include our Celebration Sun and Seasons Mat for more advanced lessons on the relationship between the Sun and the Earth and for birthday celebrations. The Cosmic Story Mat brings in the Big Bang and actively engages the children in retelling the story with a timeline on the mat. Next, the introduction of the Wheel of Life material allows children to learn about cycles in relationship to the Sun and seasons.
This packages all include An Introduction to the Biomes with Curriculum. This material includes our Waseca Biomes Curriculum Guide for the teacher and elementary nomenclature cards to introduce parts of the biomes, vertebrates, plants, and the biomes used in the Waseca Biomes materials. Additionally, the Elementary cards include lessons on Nitrogen and Carbon cycles. Parts of the Biome Readers integrate the phonetic structure of the Waseca Reading Program (included in our Language Package) with independent lessons on Energy from the Sun, Soil, Air, Water, Plants, and Animals.
We include several grammar mats in these packages: The Backyard Biome Mat uses grammar cards to build sentences about the interactions happening in the scene on the mat. The Landform Mat ties in the study of land and water with land and water forms to label and explore. Command cards on three levels incorporate language into the geography lesson by instructing the children to move through, around, and above the land and water forms. Higher levels challenge students to make proper names for places and write a travel log about their journey. The Water Cycle Mat illustrates how water is recycled. Children place the arrows in the scene to show where the actions are taking place and build sentences with the grammar cards describing their observations. The Rock Cycle mat is now included as well! When learning about plant and animal life, the Tree of Life introduces taxonomy and classification. The Biosphere Nesting Box illustrates the Systems Thinking approach of how life is structured and connected and guides children step by step through this web of life and its parts from largest (the galaxy) to the smallest (cells and atoms).
Classroom packages include all materials shown on this page. Classroom shelving is sold separately and can be found here: https://wasecabiomes.org/pages/furniture
