me on the map

I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest! Once I saw it, I pinned it to my school board because I knew we would do it this year. I figured it would fit in nicely with our continent unit and help them see how learning about the continents relates to them. It was also a nice way to review our home address! The state, united states, north america and earth outline images all were found on google images.

map activity

Today I had the girls do a map activity that included listening skills and following directions. I provided them each with a blank world map. I would then call out a direction like, "Color Africa green. Color North America orange." and so on. I am amazed that they can already locate and identify all of the continents on the map. Oh, and they LOVE The Continent Song! The other activity that had to do today was copy work. Their least favorite!

The Continent Song -
Let's name all of the continents.
There are 7 on earth.
There's Europe, Asia and Australia
North and South America too.
Now don't forget about Africa
And Antarctica too.
For there's 1...2...3,4,5,6,7 continents!

map work

Today the girls made a world map by pin punching around each continent. We just used large push pins to punch around the continents. Why didn't we just use scissors, you ask? Because the contienets were small and I knew it would be hard for the girls to cut something that small and keep the shape of the contients. It was also really good practice for hand-eye coordination which is a necessary skill in writing. It was a lot of prep work on my part (my finger is still sore from using an exacto knife last night!), but I think the end result turned out nice!


materials -
pattern of continents
construction paper - orange, pink, red, green, yellow, brown, white and blue
large push pin
exacto knife
glue

directions -
1. print and cut out the paper templates
2. trace onto cardborad
3. use an exacto knife to cut around the continents
4. trace the continents onto the appropriate color of construction paper
5. have student pin punch around the outlines
6. cut 2 circles out of blue constructions paper
7. glue the continents onto the world

world geography

This week we will be learning about world geography. Each day they will do some type of work related to the continents. Today, we started out by learning that there are 7 continents. I made a push pin world map for them out of some very inexpensive materials. We also learned a song about the continents sung to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". I will be using the traditional Montessori continent colors for this unit: North America - Orange, South America - Pink, Europe - Red, Asia - Yellow, Africa - Green, Australia - Brown, Antarctica - White.




materials -
print out of the maps
2 sheets of foam
rubber cement
7 white push pins

directions -
1. print out the maps
2. cut out the 2 maps and glue each one onto a foam sheet
3. provide student with 7 push pins and the continent labels
4. the control map is the map already labeled with the continents; the other map is blank and that is where the student will do their work
5. have students pin each continent name onto the continent; students can use the control map to check their work