Founded by Sharon Duncan and located in Athens, Georgia, Waseca Biomes (pronounced Wa-She-Ka) has been making Montessori materials for the past twenty years. Using natural materials like cloth, paper, and wood, their materials are the gold standard for studying geography through biomes, as well as integrated language and cultural studies. While I was a classroom teacher in the 9-12 classroom, we used the biome materials extensively to supplement our geography and cultural studies. They were a consistent go-to material for our students to conduct independent research.
When I moved to the gym setting, I began checking in with every class to integrate their classroom concepts with my lessons. One of the lower elementary teachers mentioned that she just taught her students about the Cosmic Tower (Cosmic Nesting Boxes). I had not heard of this material before, but it sounded pretty interesting. When I saw the material, my first impression was it was impressive in its clarity and elegance. I encourage you to go to Wasecabiomes.org and see this material for yourself and all their other beautiful products. The concept was simple but so well executed that the students clearly understood its concepts. I knew this needed to be integrated into the PE classroom. I worked on creating a lesson that would encapsulate the experience of going from big (the universe) to small (the person). After I created the lesson, I tested it with several of my lower elementary classes in the late spring, and it was a hit. This was in 2019.
This year, my lower elementary classes were introducing the Cosmic Tower material again, so it was time to blow the dust off the lesson and play it again after a several-year hiatus (a lot of it was Covid’s fault). I played the game with my first lower elementary class, and it wasn’t so much fun. The lesson was not serving the purpose I wanted it to, and there were several reasons why I think it was a flop.
Not enough players were getting a turn to hit the ball.
My lower elementary classes this year “feel” younger than the 2019 classes (maybe another fault of COVID-19?).
Because it is so early in the year, we just finished a big lesson on sportsmanship. Last time, it was late in the year, and students had plenty of practice with sportsmanship. This year, not so much. I needed a version that emphasized sportsmanship over competition.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
I realized that the old version is much better for upper elementary now. The new version is much better for lower elementary that it’s like night and day. In my opinion, the reasonable thing to do is share this new lower elementary version with you all. If you are interested in the upper elementary version, you can find it here. This new Cosmic Tower lesson contains both versions, available for purchase independently or instantly available when you become a member. I hope your lower elementary students enjoy this new version as much as my older students did!
Cosmic Nesting Tower
Inspired by the Waseca material
Montessori Physical Education
Introduction:
The Cosmic Nesting Tower is a material in the lower elementary classroom that helps students understand the relationship between themselves and the universe. Waseca makes this specific material, and their official narrative is included in this lesson. Like Russian nesting dolls, the boxes make the tower fit inside each other. The order of the boxes, from largest to smallest, goes:
· Milky Way Galaxy
· Solar System
· Earth
· Your continent
· Your country
· Your state or region
· Your city or town
· The building of your school
· The child
Additional boxes could be the universe (the largest box) and the energy within the child (the smallest box).
The students will play a game where the dimensions of the playing area begin to shrink, and each new playing area will represent the following box. The students will get a visceral experience of watching and feeling their playing area get smaller and smaller, as if the child is zooming in from the universe to their school. This game is a fun companion to the Cosmic Nesting Tower lesson.
Materials:
· A large play area (a gym works best, but can be played outside)
o If in the gym, use the lines already established on the court
o If outside, bring many rubber disc dots to create the perimeter(s) of the playing area and the half line.
· Lower Elementary
o Large balloons or beach balls
o If you have athletic and robust students, light yoga balls can work
· Upper Elementary
o Several large yoga balls
Minimum Number of Students Needed: This game can be played with as few as two players but is more fun with more students.
Prior Knowledge: The students should have had the Cosmic Nesting Tower Lesson.
Presentation for Lower Elementary
· Begin by asking the students what they remember from the Cosmic Tower lesson. Next, review the different boxes and what they represent. Then, split the students into teams. I typically split them by grade level so their abilities are similar, but this is up to the teacher's discretion.
· Explain that the game combines volleyball and hacky sack. For the "ball," they will use a large balloon, beach ball, or yoga ball. The game's goal is to juggle the ball, allowing one bounce per hit as many times as possible.
· The game is played in rounds. The students keep their highest volley score for each round. We compare the score of each round to the others to discuss why scores went up or done during the postgame discussion.
· The same player cannot hit the ball two times in a row. If they do so, the team must start over.
· One player starts the game by throwing the ball in the air or bouncing it off the ground for another player to begin hitting the ball.
· If a team uses every player to hit the ball at least once during the volley, they can add ten points to their score! Every time they use all of their players, they can get an additional ten points, which can make a dramatically large score. This will incentivize using everyone.
o If the lesson is early in the year, do not emphasize scores between teams. Just compare one team's scores to their previous attempts.
o A word on sportsmanship. Teams may discover they can get a high score if they only use two players to hit the ball back and forth. However, this brings up a good talking point. "Is it worth getting a high score if most players are not having fun because they are not playing?" This seamlessly ties into sportsmanship and the mantra "Be fun to play with, and be fun to play against."
· Students are not able to catch the yoga ball and throw it. Instead, the ball must be hit, bumped, or pushed.
· The Milky Way is the easiest to play because it has no boundaries. The students are allowed to spread out as far as they want. If you are in a gym, the students can play the ball off the walls.
· We introduce boundary lines as the playing area begins to shrink as they zoom in, like how the Cosmic Tower boxes zoom in. If the ball goes outside the boundary line, they must start over. This means the students must exert more control over how they hit the ball so they can keep it in bounds.
· The teams must be aware of their ball and the other team so they don't bump into each other.
· Here are diagrams for how I use a gym to create the different boxes of the Cosmic Tower.
