How to Study The Story of the Universe and The Origin of Life

It’s time for another 12 Months of Montessori Series and today I am sharing Mavi’s favourite book series.  We have been using these books for years now.  The books are all about the cosmic history to the evolution of man.  The stories are accompanied by stunning images and time-line to follow.  Everything in these books are just too magical and enlightening for him!  In this post you will also see the activities that the kids did in order to make the Study of the Universe and the Origin of Life a lot more interesting.

About the Books

There are three books in the series and each book tells a story about a certain period in time.  Here are the details of the books which you can purchase from Amazon:

• BORN WITH A BANG.  Story of the universe from the Big Bang to the formation of the sun and solar system.
• FROM LAVA TO LIFE.  Story of the Earth from the appearance of the first life forms to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
• Mammals Who Morph.  The story of the first mammals to the story of humans.

When I asked Mavi how we’re going to showcase his books in today’s post, he suggested that we should make some kind of “interpretation”, similar to a museum but only in a series of activities.  So I scanned and laminated his favourite parts in each book so we can do our “interpretation” of the story.

BORN WITH A BANG:  How the universe was formed.

Seen here, we replicated the bursting of lights in the universe forming into galaxies, stars and planets via the milk/soap/food coloring science activity.  This was performed by Mavi and Vito.  The mixing and contrast of colours looked like the big bang!

BORN WITH A BANG:  The sun was formed.

We painted the sun using yellow and orange paints.  To make the flares as described in the book, we used plastic fork to create a dramatic effect on the sun.

FROM LAVA TO LIFE:  The first life forms.

We used the Safari Toob Cambrian Life to learn about the early life forms of mother Earth.  We explored this before so it was another round of learning for Mavi and something new for Vito LOL.

FROM LAVA TO LIFE:  The age of the dinosaurs.

This was the kids favourite part of the history.  Mavi relived the era of dinosaurs by setting up his Playmobil Dinosaur collections, which includes a gigantic volcano, some plants and dinosaurs. We’ve been using our Dinosaur Playmobils for months now, and they’re worth-it!  I stopped buying LEGOs for now and started investing in  Playmobil Toys for more imaginative play (for both boys). Who couldn’t resist dinosaurs? Even Vito loves them to pieces!

MAMMALS WHO MORPH:  The first humans.

Next we moved on to the life of the first humans.  This Playmobil Caveman set (a gift) is another favourite! It has a fire that glows (battery operated), a mammoth, sabertooth, and humans.  Mavi and I discussed what has changed after the dinosaurs left the planet.  We talked about the difference of the dinosaurs and the (new set) animals of the stoneage era, how the first humans survived, how they produced food, clothing, and build homes.

MAMMALS WHO MORPH:  the age of technology.

This is the part of the book where it mentions about the human inventions and discoveries and how the inventions helped the lives of many people and how the advancement also destroyed mother Earth.  This is timely because Mavi’s school is currently educating them about biodiversity, of what is “going green”, building insect hotels and recycling old materials.

In this part of the book, we explored the house and identified machines and other technologies that have helped humans all throughout history.  The oven for cooking, washing machine for washing the clothes, toilet and bathroom for grooming, electricity, water system, networks and the world wide web… etc.  We then discussed the ways humans destroy the planet and how we can help to rebuild it.


With just these three books, we were able to learn history, science, math and all others in between!  Hope you are inspired by this post and hopefully, grab a copy of the books as well!  Happy reading and learning!

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This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.  Let’s check what my fave Montessori Mom bloggers are featuring this month!”"

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