Review, Part 2: World Classification Photo Cards by Laughing Star Montessori

We were so fortunate to receive three items from Laughing Star Montessori from their World Classification Photo Cards Series. With this series, you receive a pdf that contains cards that are meant to be cut out and laminated, as well as a directions cards. The directions card for each one of the pdfs received was great, in that it laid out how you could use the cards.

Our family was already familiar with their World Classifications Cards Series, as we had purchased the wonderful Caribbean Sea Life Cards and the all of the World Animals Black line Masters at last year's Montessori conference in Sarasota, so we already knew how nice their cards and masters are before even trying out these cool pdfs. 
We love what we had purchased from them last year and were just thrilled to get to try out their pdfs. We actually took the Caribbean Sea Life Cards with us when we went on our Caribbean cruise and will do this again when we go back to the Caribbean in the future. Was so nice for the boys to be able to identify many of the Caribbean sea creatures, largely due to using these cards and doing this work.



World Transportation - Elementary
This pdf included a directions card plus fifteen land vehicles, fifteen air vehicles, and fifteen water vehicles photo cards per continent, as well as land, air and water label cards.
The photos on the cards are great. The variety and interesting attention to detail makes this transportation work enticing to an elementary aged student, as we quickly found out with Big Bro.

Even though this work is geared for Elementary, both boys enjoyed the cards. Big Bro did them as a work as suggested by Laughing Star...
Little Bro had fun using the cards as sorting cards for land / air / water transportation.
Both boys also had a great time playing a version of I Spy, where they had to look for vehicles similar to the ones on the cards while we were on vacation.

World Reptiles - Primary
This included a directions card plus eight cards per continent with the label of each reptile underneath the photo of the animal (It includes seven reptiles per continent, plus one Montessori color coded Continent card per Continent.). Little Bro used these cards and enjoyed working with them. He learned a great deal about reptiles using these cards.


World Reptiles - Elementary
This included a directions card plus eight cards per continent with a two to three sentence description of each reptile underneath the animal. The descriptions present interesting facts to the child, but also could be used either for discussion during group time or else, as sentences for copy work, if the cards are being used in a homeschool setting that uses copy work in conjunction with Montessori presentations. Big Bro loved these cards!
He also used the sentences on the cards for grammar work. Big Bro copied the sentences from the cards onto paper and then, used the grammar symbols to do the grammar work.

By having both the Primary and the Elementary cards, I was able to compare the two sets of cards. It is nice for a younger child to just be given the name of the animal, but then, it works great for an older child to have more factual information on each card. Really makes the lesson presentations and the accompanying Montessori work very age appropriate, although you can use the older cards with younger children and have that work pretty well, too. It all depends on if you want to be able to use the cards for the purposes of naming the animals or for being able to learn some neat facts to accompany the names.  
Again, highly encourage you to check out  Laughing Star Montessori. They have terrific materials for both the classroom and homeschool,  including their newest offer of high quality,   affordable pdfs, as well as free downloads for you to try.

There are also some things that would work great as holiday gift items, especially the two woodworking books, Children Can Build! and Children Can Build More! 

Laughing Star Montessori also offers a free newsletter you can sign up for that will keep you up-to-date about any special offers they have. they also offer free shipping in the continental U.S. only.  

Full disclosure: 
 Our family was given six free pdfs to try in exchange for an honest, thorough review of their materials. 

The feedback is my honest perception as to how my sons enjoyed using these materials, how effective these materials were at presenting concepts, and the quality of the materials we were given.