Montessori Elementary Science Shelves
Preparing your science shelves can be a lot of work. I remember in my training that these chapters were some of the hardest just because experiments take so much effort to set up. I made this page to take away some of that difficulty for you.
These are the science command cards I sell. As I create more experiment cards, I’ll update this page.
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- Botany Experiments$10.00
I created these handy printable materials lists as well:
I have included Amazon affiliate links to products that I use and enjoy. These are for your convenience. I do receive a small percentage from every purchase without any increase to your price.
Equipment Needed For Physical Science Experiments
These are the items you’ll put on your shelf and use forever. The important thing is that whatever you choose to become a piece of scientific equipment must stay a piece of scientific equipment. Do not use kitchen materials for a science experiment and then return it to food use. Though all of the experiments are non-toxic, we want the students to take safety seriously (read: don’t eat the science).
Physical Science Consumables
These are items you’ll need to refresh periodically. You can get nearly everything at your grocery store, but there are a few specialty items.
I recommend repackaging ingredients into a “science container,” like these spice jars. Repackaging means there will be less of the ingredients out at a time which encourages children to use less and if a mess happens it’s much smaller. Repackaging also makes the ingredients look less like food; consider the difference between a bag of sugar with a picture of a pie on the front and a glass jar labeled “sucrose.”
- Brown Sugar
- White sugar
- Salt
- White vinegar (go ahead and get a gallon, you’ll go through vinegar like crazy)
Some albums suggest using copper sulfate, please do not do this as copper sulfate is toxic.
Equipment Needed For Botany Experiments
Most of the things you need for botany experiments can be purchased at a plant nursery or hardware store in early spring (could make a great going out!). There is a lot of overlap in the materials listed in the physical science experiments (beakers, test tubes, etc.), so I’m only going to list the botany specific materials. See the linked PDFs at the top of this page for details.
