Betsy Bowen is an author and/or illustrator of children’s books, many of which are set in northern Minnesota. She wrote and illustrated Tracks in the Wild. Most of her illustrations are woodcut, and she also paints. The printing press used to make the woodcut images can be seen at her studio in Grand Marais, MN.
For today’s post, I made some 3-part animal tracking cards that are Montessori-inspired. I did have plans to make “real” Montessori cards with photographs, but it was too difficult to find photos. Then, it was too difficult to find clip art for the Minnesota animals mentioned in the book. It is getting more and more difficult to find art that can be used on “freebies.” So, the animals are just a scattering of animals and it was all the clip art I could find. Making freebies can be a challenge.
Here is a picture of the Betsy Bowen studio in Grand Marais, Minnesota.
Animal Tracks 3-part Cards
Click on these words for the new animal tracking 3-part card freebie, or click on the photo below to download your copy.
Here are pictures of the tracking printable in use, set up on a Montessori tray and rug. The first tray set up has the children matching two cards.
In the next tray set up, the children would be matching the animal to the track (and word).
The rug could be used for matching two or four cards.
Back to Betsy Bowen! I have made freebies for other books illustrated and/or written by Betsy. Here are free matching cards for a book she illustrated, The Big Belching Bog. The cards may be used without the book, as well. This link goes to to the blog post about the bog book.
The book Big Belching Bog was written by Phyllis Root and illustrated by Betsy Bowen. It is a large and beautiful book.
Betsy also illustrated a beautiful book about prairies. Again the free printable cards could be used with or without the book, but I hope you can find a copy of this beautiful book to show your students or children. Here is the link to the Plant a Pocket of Prairie post.
The free printable has “foldables” or interactive student notebook activities (ISN’s) for the book Plant a Pocket of Prairie. It was written by Phyllis Root, and illustrated by Betsy Bowen. Another large and beautiful book!
Betsy wrote and illustrated Antler, Bear Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet Year. For Antler, Bear, Canoe, I made a free A to Z printable, as it is an alphabet book. This is the link to the blog post. Click on these words or the picture below for this freebie. This book also has a companion song CD, Antler, Bear, Kazoo.
ANTLER, BEAR, CANOE, book review and free teaching printable
For The Gathering: A Northwoods Counting Book, also written and illustrated by Betsy Bowen, I made a full year of calendar pieces and heading printable. It is in our free eMember area at this link (free printable). It is 88 pages, so wait while it downloads! I also have older long vowels work page to accompany this book.
Thanks for reading, Carolyn
You might also like the free zoo animal coloring pages and word search at this blog post link.