When you start to be interested by the Montessori education, you will come across many Montessori…
3-part cards, also known as classified pictures or nomenclature, are a staple in the Montessori classroom.
For a new teacher or an eager parent, finding or making these cards can be time-consuming and overwhelming.
If you want to make them yourself, you may want to read my blog post about how to make them here.
I have curated a list of websites and blogs that offer FREE printable Montessori documents.
But first, are the 3-part cards necessary?
They can be used for:
- vocabulary
- classification,
- reading
- writing
- culture
- geography
- art
The main purpose is to enrich the child’s vocabulary. It’s key to understand how the world functions. It shows how animals and plants are related or not related to each other, it shows what is the same and what is different. It enables the child to make sense of their environment.
Obviously, it is more abstract material than a real-life experience or hands-on material.
For example, an experience at the farm would be more concrete than classifying farm animals with 3-part cards.
However, you can explore any subject that your child is interested in with classified cards and extend your child’s knowledge that way.
This material is an aid for the classification of the environment.
For children from 3 to 6, as they are in a period where they want to classify and order, these materials will respond to their needs to organize their impressions of the world.
I don’t believe you need to print cards for every subject that exists. As always, follow your child’s lead.
There are also all the “classic” Montessori cultural activities such as classifying by continents, the difference between living and non-living things, what lives on Earth, in the Sky or in the Water, the parts of animals cards and the life cycle of animals or plants.
This is a non-exhausting list but a good starting point.
Sometimes I also print pictures because it’s easier than finding a book with real pictures.
In language, you could also print the pink series to start with.
My main advice is not to get obsessed with printable documents and not to attempt to print them all.
Observe your child and print as you go. Some children will love 3-part cards. Others will not be interested until they are way older.
Here are my favourite websites and blogs to find printable Montessori documents:
Download our free 3 part cards about Garden birds
Sign up to our newsletter and receive your free printable
Each link will send you directly to the free documents section even if it’s an online shop.
This is a completely free – including the language series – collection of printable documents.
Even though this blog does not get updated anymore, she has the most amazing collection of continent cards, landmarks of the world, animals of the world and planets cards too. She has made beautiful felted material for her little boy and the website includes all the patterns to make your own felted material. I’m not that crafty but I still use the cards.
A classic website, around for many years with many printables of all kinds. All of them are FREE.
As the name implies, this is an online shop. There is a great collection of free documents here.
25 free bundle + 1 free from time to time otherwise it’s a shop.
A goldmine for Montessori but a bit overwhelming too. The cutting strips are one of the best FREE printable on the website for me. All of them are here. The link will send you directly to the cutting strips.
I love this free printable from I believe in Montessori. The pictures are stunning. I believe in Montessori has many printables you can buy too.
This blog has a huge collection of free printables, including many life cycle and animal habitat cards that I love. She also has many printables to buy too.
Teachers pay teachers is a great website. Search Montessori and filter by FREE and you will have plenty (click on the link to go straight to the search). I really like the Dinosaur cards, the matching shapes cards and the parts of the flower nomenclature.
Many free nomenclature cards here. I particularly like the parts of the tree cards. It’s also a shop and I bought many bundles from there.
Add this blog post to your favourites to keep as a reference and to avoid losing yourself in the web.
You can follow my Pinterest board here. I make sure I add only FREE printables on this board and I check and double-check regularly to make sure each pin is still available.
