Product Overview

Designed with our easy cut system - 5 cuts or less. Requires only 3 cuts.
Printed on premium thick card stock. May be used unlaminated or laminated

Classified nomenclature for the External Characteristics of Arthropods. Used in the study of zoology in the elementary. This set focuses on just the Arthropods.

Includes:

1 Wall Chart
Control picture and label
Control definition and label
Matching picture with label, and
Matching definition with blanks and label

Since the control charts and control cards are included, we do not include a booklet.

Providing children in the 6-9 classroom with the correct nomenclature for Arthropoda does far more than teach big words; it nurtures habits of keen observation, precise thinking, and ecological responsibility.

Builds a Precise Scientific Vocabulary

Latin-Greek roots that travel well – Terms such as exoskeleton, chitin, mandible, and cephalothorax give students etymological tools they will meet again in later zoology, chemistry, and even medical studies.
Bridges to literacy – “Arthro-” (joint) and “-pod” (foot) illustrate how prefixes and suffixes create meaning, strengthening spelling and decoding skills across languages.

2. Sharpens Observation and Classification

Structure ⇒ function thinking – Learning words like compound eye or metamorphosis guides children to ask why butterflies see in many directions or why a larva must molt.
Distinguishing look-alikes – Accurately separating insects (three body parts, six legs) from arachnids (two body parts, eight legs) rehearses the scientist’s discipline of grouping by criteria, not convenience.

3. Grounds Abstract Ideas in Concrete Experience

Montessori classrooms thrive on hands-on encounters: pinned insect specimens, moults from a school tarantula, or a freshwater crayfish in an aquarium. Labeling these parts with three-part cards anchors large biological concepts—segmentation, bilateral symmetry, adaptive radiation—in tangible materials.

4. Fosters Systems Thinking and Ecology

Food-web literacy – Once an isopod is more than a “roly-poly” and becomes a detritivorous crustacean, children can trace nutrient cycles from forest floor to songbird.
Human connections – Proper names open conversations about pollination services, silk production, medical uses of horseshoe-crab blood, and the ethics of pesticide use.

5. Cultivates Respectful Stewardship

Specificity breeds empathy. A child who can say “We found millipede Narceus americanus under the log” is less likely to step on it and more inclined to return it gently to its habitat.

6. Integrates Seamlessly Across the Curriculum

Curriculum Area	Practical Tie-In
Language	Sentence analysis with arthropod vocabulary; root studies (arthro-, -ptera).
Mathematics	Tallying leg counts, graphing metamorphosis timelines, calculating growth after molts.
Cultural Studies	Comparing arthropods in Indigenous cuisines, ancient Egyptian scarab symbolism, or Chinese zodiac lore.
Art	Scientific illustration of butterfly wing venation or beetle elytra using scale, symmetry, and color blending.
Practical Life	Maintaining a classroom terrarium and recording humidity/temperature data to support molting cycles.

7. Prepares for Higher-Order Research Projects

Early mastery of correct terms gives older elementary students the confidence to navigate field guides, biodiversity databases, or citizen-science apps, laying the groundwork for projects on habitat loss, invasive species, or climate-driven range shifts.

RESOURCES

Look at our Science Flow Chart for Upper Elementary and that for Lower Elementary to see how this work fits in with the traditional Montessori curriculum.

STANDARDS
View the Standards met through this material