Even if you are on summer break at present, World Population Day presents a wonderful opportunity to explore concept of population with your Montessori students when you return to school in September: What are the benefits and problems that accompany a large or small population? When we discuss population, how large of numbers do we use? What can influence the rise and fall in population (affluence, poverty, disease, technology, war, etc.)? Look at population booms and how quickly populations can grow, and why. What happens when every two people have one or two children, and so on and so on?
Using your Montessori landform and biome materials, explore with your students where human populations are highest in the world, and even within your own country. What sort of natural (and man made environments seem to be preferred by humans in general? This opens the door to so many potential observations and comparisons to give your Montessori students a sense of the scope of world population, as well as that of different countries, or cities within countries. “Everyone Counts” can be brought into any project in order to further explore its meaning in the context of that activity.
