Montessori and the Nitrogen Cycle

Montessori and Waldorf emphasize doing everything in a hands-on way, and having it be beautiful, so it is easy for people to assume that they don't get as much actual content in as a public school classroom. WRONG! I learned the Nitrogen Cycle in a public high school, in A.P. Biology in 11th grade. If I was in a Waldorf school, I would learn it in middle school, in 7th grade. If I was in a Montessori school, I would learn it in Lower Elementary, ages 6-9.

There are several good resources for the Nitrogen Cycle, Montessori-style. Waseca Biomes includes the three-part cards for it in their Introduction to the Biomes with Curriculum: Elementary material and you get blackline masters to make a booklet. There's also a wonderful lesson for making a Nitrogen Cycle feltboard lesson and, inspired by her post, I did make one in December 2013. Had a great time cutting, sewing, and embroidering the pieces using pure wool felt.

Here are some pictures of that material and students giving the lesson to their families:

Becca and her grandmother

Sadly, when I came here to Illinois, the Nitrogen Cycle feltboard lesson was misplaced in the move. I'm sure it is somewhere in one of the boxes that has not yet been unpacked. But it was bothering me so much to not have it for my students to use. I did include the Nitrogen Cycle when my class did their recent Waldorf Farming & Gardening block, but we used the Waseca cards.

(And, I will point out, that was my own idea. Usually in Waldorf that 3rd grade block doesn't have much 7th grade Chemistry or Soil Science in it!)

Well, very recently (last November) my homeschool group finished up our collaborative tapestry for the Backyard Biome. We did this weaving as part of the Waldorf 4th grade Local History & Geography block. What could be more local than your backyard? It is a great tapestry, with layers of clay (yep, I have that in my soil) and mole tunnels (yes, I have those too) and a mama and a baby mole and layers of Autumn leaves decomposing into the soil and earthworms burrowing and new green grass and a digging pit full of water.

Because we didn't want to weave the sky blue -- thinking that then it would get confused with the water area -- a student cleverly suggested weaving a stormy gray sky. We even added some bolts of lightning! I promised the children that when it was done, I would sew beads into the sky to be the raindrops.

All of those things came to pass and I was sewing the beads on last weekend when it hit me like the proverbial bolt of lightning.

the only piece I can find from my original work

Nitrification Box 1:  Atmosphere

Lightning? Wait! That's part of the Nitrogen cycle! And then I looked at the tapestry again. Autumn leaves returning to the earth... yes. Earthworms... yes. Lighting and clouds and rain... yes. All I needed to add were the tree and the deer and the legume with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and the fungi and mycelia with denitrification bacteria. I could turn that tapestry into a classroom lesson on the Nitrogen cycle!

the tapestry carefully wrapped in brown paper in my Science room

alongside my Waseca Biome materials

Ever since I had that amazing idea, I have been sewing. Every morning when Zac wakes up, I've completed something new. I even shared it with my students on Wednesday when they were sharing their Passion Projects for March. It has definitely been my Passion Project! Today I finished it all, and photographed it. I'm very excited to share it with my class, and I'm equally excited to share it with you.

For this lesson I'm also suggesting the Parts of the Biome Jars by Waseca Biome. They no longer sell those separately; they are part of a Backyard Biome Mat Bundle (which also comes with a canvas Backyard Biome Mat). Happily, you don't have to weave an entire tapestry to make use of my notes. You could simply start with their mat and make any extra pieces out of felt that you needed.

Of course, you could do the entire thing of felt as I did the first time around!

The first time I did this I got four identical little boxes and labeled them with my labelmaker and put the pieces in them. This time around we are all staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so instead of going to Hobby Lobby, I looked around my house for little boxes. I ended up finding four boxes that used to have Christmas cards in them and have colorful sides and clear tops. Each one is different, which at first I didn't like. But when I sat down and practiced the lesson I found that I really did like having each step being a different colored box. It's so easy to grab the pieces that I need.

Here are my Nitrogen Cycle Presentation Notes as a PDF. This is based off of the feltboard lesson created by "Somewhat in the Air" (which I was very grateful to find online) and includes exactly what to make and what to say.

And the photos:

our beautiful hand-woven collaborative tapestry
using the 48 inch wide Friendly Loom by Harrisville Designs

the felt tree

and the four boxes with the pieces

free Nitrogen in the atmosphere and the soil

water (H2O) 

in the cloud as water vapor

and in the sky as rain

lightning bolt and nitric oxide (NO)

nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

nitric acid (NHO3)

nitric oxide, nitric dioxide, and nitric acid move to the soil

the seed beads on the roots are nitrogen fixing bacteria

ammonia (NH3)

the ammonia is converted into NO2 and NO3

plants use NO2 and NO3 as fuel for growth

(lay down the plant's new leaves) and Oxygen is released

Nitrogen is stored in the leaves, fruit, and roots of the legumes

the deer eats the legume

the Nitrogen moves into the deer

the Nitrogen exits the deer via excrement

and the process of death and decomposition

I made extra bones for the little mole we had woven

into the tapestry

of course, the tree has Nitrogen in it too

it drops its leaves

and the leaves die and decay

we had already woven a layer of decaying leaves

(and earthworms, doing their job as decomposers)

into the tapestry as well!

the mushroom and mycelia

with seed bead denitrification bacteria

bacteria... simply amazing

it's so beautiful and I'm so glad to be able to give this key lesson
in such a rich and lively way again!!!!