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 Platyhelminthes. Used in the study of zoology in the elementary. This set focuses on just the Platyhelminthes.

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.

A child adjusts the coarse focus and a flat, arrow-shaped creature glides across the microscope field.
“You’re watching a planarian, one kind of Platyhelminthes,” you whisper.
With that single, precise name, a flicker of curiosity becomes an invitation to think like a young zoologist.

1 • Builds a Precise Scientific Vocabulary

Roots that live on – Platy- means “flat,” -helminth means “worm.” Words such as auricle, pharynx, cuticle, flame cell, and protonephridia give children Greek-Latin tools that return in later biology and even medicine.
Structure ↔ function clarity – Naming the gastrovascular cavity (one opening for mouth + anus) or the fluid-filled pseudocoelom helps students link vocabulary to how flatworms eat, move, and excrete wastes.

2 • Sharpens Observation and Classification

Form inspires questions – Labeling bilateral symmetry, dorsoventral flattening, and the absence of a body cavity nudges children to wonder why a flat body diffuses oxygen so well.
Sorting by internal plan – Comparing an unsegmented flatworm to a segmented earthworm rehearses real scientific grouping rather than “things that wiggle.”

3 • Grounds Abstract Ideas in Concrete Experience

Planaria in petri dishes, preserved liver-fluke slides, and three-part cards for eyespots, auricles, and pharynx anchor invisible anatomy in something children can touch and trace.

4 • Fosters Systems Thinking and Ecology

Food-web roles – Free-living marine flatworms prey on tiny crustaceans, while parasitic flukes alter entire reef communities—an entry to talk about balance and biodiversity.
Human connections – Learning the term tapeworm lets students link proper cooking or deworming treatments to real parasite life-cycles.

5 • Cultivates Respectful Stewardship

Specific names nurture empathy. A child who can say, “This is Schistosoma, a blood fluke,” is more likely to suggest snail-control solutions than blanket pesticide use.

6 • Integrates Seamlessly Across the Curriculum

Curriculum Area	Practical Tie-In
Language	Root study (platy, helminth); sentence analysis using flatworm terms.
Mathematics	Counting planarian phototaxis turns per minute, graphing regeneration times, measuring body length before & after feeding.
Cultural Studies	Ancient Egyptian remedies for fluke infections; Nobel Prizes for Schistosoma research.
Art	Symmetry prints of marine flatworms; watercolor layers showing internal organ placement.
Practical Life	Setting up simple Baermann funnels to extract soil nematodes & flatworms; maintaining planarian cultures.

7. Prepares for Higher-Order Research

Early mastery of words gives upper-elementary students confidence to read simplified journals on stem-cell science—or even design their own regeneration experiments.

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