Introduction to the Cosmic Nesting Boxes

The Cosmic Nesting Boxes – An important material for Montessori Cosmic Education

The purpose of this material is to teach our children how a place exists within a larger place. It is an illustration and reinforcement of the concept of a child’s place in the universe and geographic location.

There are 10 nesting boxes with corresponding labels. As the word ‘nesting’ depicts, 9 boxes are nestled within the largest nesting box, and the presentation commences with the introduction of the largest nesting box.

When first introduced to the Cosmic Nesting Boxes, we ask the children to imagine themselves in deep, dark space. The space is blacker than the darkest night, and it goes on in all directions, forever and ever. Children imagine that they are moving through this space, and they see light ahead. As they get closer, they see that the light is coming from a cluster of millions of stars. The stars are clustered together in the shape of a spiral, the Milky Way Galaxy.

When the children open their eyes, they see the biggest Cosmic Nesting Box representing the Milky Way Galaxy. And we will find the corresponding label to place beside the box.

Now, it is time to reveal the next cosmic nesting box, and we ask the children to look really closely at the galaxy to find one particular star, the Sun with the planets in orbit around it.

We lift the Milky Way Galaxy box to reveal the Solar System box within and place the appropriate label beside it.

To identify the next box, we look for one of the planets that is just the right distance away from the Sun.  It has to be a planet that does not get too hot or too cold, so it can support life.  We found our planet Earth. We lift the Solar System box and reveal the Earth box within and label it.

Now, we are on our way to reveal our continent, North America. Our planet Earth has water and large areas of land called continents, with North America as our home continent. We lift the Earth box to reveal the continent box within and label it.

Within North America is a country called the United States of America. We lift the continent box to reveal the country box within and label it.

One of the states, our state within this country is called Nevada. We lift the country box to reveal the state box within and label it.

Inside of our state box is a city called Las Vegas. We lift the state box to reveal the city box within and label it.

Within this city is the street where our school is located, and we lift the city box to reveal the school box, SpringStone Montessori School, within and label it.

Inside the school building is YOU, a child! You are one of more than 7 billion people on this planet – and you are UNIQUE! We lift the school box to reveal the child box within and label it.

Inside of YOU are atoms, which are the building blocks of all things on our planet and in our universe. They contain energy, the stuff that holds all of the universe together. And we lift the child box to reveal our last and smallest box, the atom box and label it.

Once the initial presentation is complete, this work can be done individually. The tower can be built either horizontally or vertically with the appropriate labels placed beside the boxes.