Continent Recognition

USING CONTINENT NOMENCLATURE CARDS  AND SOME EXTENSIONS

The more I do it , the more I love Montessori method. The fixed colors of continents make things so much simpler and understandable for young minds.

I found these FREE Continent Nomenclatures cards (in Montessori colors) at the Helpful Garden. I almost jumped out of my seat, because I just happened to find these just as I was thinking of making them by myself.

I also found another free one here at Montessori helper.

Well back to our activity…… I cut and pasted our cards as soon as I had the printouts in my hand. Once done Lil Muallimah did this…..She used her big map for reference, Mashallah!

 

Next we played a few games of Twister as posted in my last post and then we did these extensions…

Continent Match up with picture cards

Continent Match up with name cards

We did another activity… Continent tracing that you can check out from the link below:

Other related activities:

Our World Map

Coloring the large scale World Map

Continent Tracing

Flagging the continents

Continent Shapes

Continent Game

Push Pinning Continents

Push Pinning Continents

PUNCHING OUT CONTINENTS

I loved this idea since I saw it on several Montessori blogs. I didn’t have a big pricking tool or a fancy push pin, so I kept putting it off, until I had this Eureka moment and made my own push pins. Now why didn’t I think of this before…. DUH!!

I made our very own DIY push pins ready in less than ten minutes. I could not believe why I never thought of this before. I was not in favor of using the regular sized push pins. I could be wrong, but I thought the miniature sized ones were not only a safety hazard but would put too much strain on the hand on the lil ones.

Well here we are… our very own pushpins…. and cork board made by hot gluing two pieces of cork board  to make  a thicker surface for the pins to go through.

Lil Muallim # 2 sat and helped me make this as a wonderful assistant Mashallah. He even chose the colors.

He kept asking what they were for….and when I showed him , his eyes were gleaming with joy.

To my utter surprise he loved this activity so much that he ended up punching out three Africas in one sitting!!!

Other helpful posts on Montessori Push Pinning continents can be read here (Montessori Print) and here (My Montessori Journey).

More on making continent maps from the punched out parts can be seen here  (Moveable Alphabet) and here (My Montessori Journey).

 

Continent Shapes

I KNOW WHAT AFRICA LOOKS LIKE

In continuing our world map activities I asked Lil Muallimah which continent would she like to do first, and she chose Africa.

I gave her this printable I got from curriculum click, when it came as a freebie. You will notice her own Africa is spelled as “AfNicA” (hehe) because she had mistaken the lines of r and i as one letter making it n…,

I am totally fine with that, she will get it eventually 🙂 If you look closely she even colored the lake in the middle, blue 🙂

Then I asked her if she wanted to make it with  modelling clay ? And she said “YES!” So I grabbed her foam puzzle and we ran downstairs.

I asked her to point out Africa on this foam puzzle I got from the $ store. (it doesn’t have the same colors as Montessori maps, so ayounger child might get confused) Thankfully Lil Muallimah got it right but I do see the wisdom and benefit in the Montessori Maps.

Nonetheless the rest is pretty much clear through the pictures. She was quite enthusiastic throughout this activity and wanted to get it just right 🙂

 

The yellow tool actually came in a play dough set, my kids had got as a gift yeaaaaars ago 🙂

TAA  DAAAAA !!!

Don’t you just love such multi level activities, encompassing, mapping, recognition, hand eye co-ordination, motor skills…..:):):):)

Other related activities:

Continent Recognition

Continent Shapes

Coloring the large scale World Map

Continent Tracing

Flagging the continents

Continent Game

Push Pinning Continents

 

Flagging the Continents

This download from Montessori Print Shop is a wonderful way to practice recognition and naming the continents. I printed out the black and white pages from the file and colored them in, by hand and  followed  the instructions to laminate and make the pinning flags.

Next day, I actually asked Lil Muallimah to help mak eher new activity.

First I asked her to place the flags on to a styrofoam sheet.

Next I asked her to make some balls with sticky tack

Then I asked her fix the balls of sticky tack onto the black dots on the continents, on the World map.

Finally she got to do her activity. Pin the correct flag on to the corresponding continent matching the color and shape.

Now the same activity with a twist. Matching the names of the continents

The control of error in Montessori Activities does give a boost to the child’s confidence. Love it 🙂

 

Continent Game

CONTINENT FUN !

Right after Lil Muallimah finished coloring her World map, (see post here) we went upstairs to turn it into something cooler, our very own…………

CONTINENT TWISTER

 We have played this way before two with the older ones, but those printed maps were played on and thrown after the wear and tear.This time I thought of sticking it onto a bristol board. Picking through our bristol boards in our stationary closet, I thought it would be much cooler if I stuck it onto blue bristol board. Now that way I wouldn`t have to colour in the continents, Phew! BUT……that meant I would have to cut around the continents. Sigh….. which I did but not around the smaller island parts.

I even made Antarctica from the left over cut out which was missing in the original map as Lil Muallimah pointed out.

Then I laminated it with shelf liner… and we were all ready to play.

Right foot Asia , left foot North America

Right foot Africa , left foot South America………

…..and Right hand Asia , left hand North America

Right foot Asia , left foot North America

By the time of the last picture she was giggling and asking me… could you please make it simpler now ! …..because she was getting all criss crossed … hehe

 FUN FUN FUN