I am in my 30’s and will be honest I remember very little geography. I think it just did not interest me when I was younger. Which is why I was so adamant I would find a way to make it fun and more interesting to my child. I love the idea of Montessori Continent Boxes but wanted...
Roundup with a long list of ideas for Montessori continent boxes for classroom or homeschool ... perfect for hands-on geography activities for preschoolers.
The foundation of Montessori Geography is based on the use of hands-on materials that enable children to explore and discover the world around them. Children are introduced to various geographical concepts like land and water forms, continents, countries, climate, and culture by using maps, globes, puzzles, and other hands-on learning materials.
Roundup with a long list of ideas for Montessori continent boxes for classroom or homeschool ... perfect for hands-on geography activities for preschoolers.
Use these beautiful watercolor World Continents lacing cards as a fine motor activity to fill out your Montessori Continent Box materials, or simply add them to your shelf as part of a Continents or general geography unit study. Sewing around the continents will help your child refine their fine motor skills as well as provide another opportunity to familiarize themselves with the shape and Montessori colors of the seven continents. This set of lacing cards includes one card for each of the 7 continents, in traditional Montessori colors. Each card comes in two levels of difficulty, for a total of 14 lacing cards. Note that the continent cards are not necessarily accurate in their geographical proportions (with relation to one another) and they are single-sided so as not to confuse children about the shapes of the continents. The cards are sized to fit two on one page. What you will receive: - One PDF file, size 8.5 by 11 inches - 14 continent lacing cards on 8 pages (7 easier, 7 more difficult) You may also be interested in our World Continents shadow matching cards: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1393829501/ ***Note: This is a DIGITAL product. No physical product will be mailed. You will receive your downloadable files immediately after purchase. These files are for personal or single classroom use only. Please do not share, alter, resell, or distribute the files in any way.***
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Ideas and resources for preparing Montessori continent boxes after children work with the Montessori continent map
I made our original continent boxes when Emily was in preschool/kindergarten. They were well loved and worth every minute of time I spent putting them together. She learrned so much from just playing with them that I knew when we started Traveling the World I wanted to update them for her. Please keep in mind before...
This year Kaleb and I have been wandering around the world via books, Little Passports, and various other things we come across in our
I love Montessori Continent Boxes. As Otto (3yrs) isn't attending a Montessori preschool this year I want to set up some Continent Boxes at home. Continent Boxes are nice materials to have at home as you can personalise the contents and make them relevant to your family. The Montessori Continent Boxes are as much about Culture as they are about Geography. We show the child the physical location of the continent through maps and the globe. We share the culture of the people through photographs, models and artefacts. In a classroom, the Continent Boxes are likely to be complete. We...
Ideas and resources for preparing Montessori continent boxes after children work with the Montessori continent map
This list of free Montessori geography resources and free continent box resources will be updated regularly so check back for new additions! If you have a link to add, leave a comment with the lin…
An Interactive Way to Teach Kids Their Address as well as their state, country, continent, and planet! A fun introduction to geography for kids!
This year I am using Galloping The Globe for both the kids. I have been trying to include books and ideas that will keep Aiden interested ...
Roundup with activities for a Montessori Africa continent box or Africa unit study for a variety of ages; activities for home or classroom
Here's our Asia continent bag. As with each of our continent bags, I do my best to find a variety of things to represent the continent as a whole. This was tricky with our Asia bag, though, because we have family and friends from China and Japan and so most of our souvenirs are from those countries. Here's what's inside: Maps and landmark cards. Books. Some of the books are from China, gifts to us from my brother-in-law's girlfriend. She was so excited to find out about James being able to count to 10 in Mandarin (here's the language program we use) and so she sent us these books. I think she hopes James will continue to learn Chinese and that he'll someday learn to read these books. The blue book is kind of unintentionally humorous - it's a dictionary of American idioms... talk about getting lost in translation. :) Japanese souvenirs: a Mangekyou (kaleidoscope), a Daruma doll, and a San Kai Koma (3 layered spinning top). These items were gifts from our friend, Kana, who recently visited her family in Japan. Miscellaneous souvenirs: Tibetan prayer flags, a mask from Papua New Guinea*, chopsticks from Bali, and a Japanese hand fan - all of these were purchased at a local fair trade store. The silk scarf is from China and was a gift to me from my brother-in-law's girlfriend. *I can't seem to find a definite answer as to which continent Papua New Guinea belongs to. I've read mixed opinions all over the web and the majority seem to align it with Asia. Feel free to add your two cents. :) Music and artwork. I purchased the drum CD years ago at the World Showcase area in Disney's Epcot Center and you can buy the Putumayo CD here. I wrote more about the artwork here. I chose artwork to represent India, Japan, China and Thailand. Pictures and postcards. The pictures are from the continent kit from Montessori For Everyone. The postcards are from Singapore and Japan. Papers, cards, and stamps. The papers can be used for Origami - this site has some easy models for kids. The rubber stamps are from my scrapbooking stash. Chinese flashcards. I found these beautiful cards here and I cut and laminated them. I think James will enjoy looking at these and, someday, I hope he'll be interested in trying to write the characters on our Buddha Board. Three part cards. Animals. I've had those two stone carved animals since I was a child! Money, flags, and stamps. The stamps and most of the currency is fake and are simply images I found on Google. Here again I tried to represent a variety of countries. The Iraqi Dinar is real and was given to us by a friend of ours who was in Iraq during the war. The tiny coin is a real Hong Kong penny, but the other coins are fake - I think I found them in a craft store years ago. The flags (China & Japan) were purchased here. This is a great cookbook with simple, yet authentic recipes from around the world. For each recipe there's a bit of history, too. I'd love to know if you have an authentic and kid-friendly recipe that represents Asia. If you'd like to share it please email me at countingcoconuts(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks! And speaking of food, one thing I think would be really fun to add to a continent bag is some felt food - in the case of Asia, something like sushi would be cute! I hope you've enjoyed this photo tour of our Asia Continent Bag! You might also enjoy these other posts from my Continent Bag Series: Our Continent Bags Our Continent Bags - Storage Our Continent Bags - North America Our Continent Bags - Antarctica Our Continent Bags - Europe Our Continent Bags - Africa Our Continent Bags - South America Our Continent Bags - Australia Also check out my Continent Bags photo album on the Counting Coconuts Facebook page. I'm linking this post up to The Preschool Corner and Montessori Monday. ~Thank you for your comments!~
Long list of free Montessori materials found online; perfect resource for classroom teachers and homeschoolers; free materials for a variety of levels, especially preschoolers through early elementary!
Easy Ways to Teach Montessori Culture with Free Printables, Continent Boxes, Multicultural Books and Activities including Zoology, Science, Botany, Geography, History, Art and Music
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
A blog about Montessori, homeschooling, Preschool, Elementray, Party, and learning.
Easy Ways to Teach Montessori Culture with Free Printables, Continent Boxes, Multicultural Books and Activities including Zoology, Science, Botany, Geography, History, Art and Music
Set of FREE printable world map choices with blank maps and labeled options for learning geography, countries, capitals, famous landmarks
Continent Folders? You're thinking, "You mean Continent Boxes, right?" Nope. I mean Continent Folders. They actually also go by "Montessori cultural folders" as well. Either name is accurate and neither name fully describes them! These were originally going to be our Montessori Continent Boxes. Now they are toy boxes. I like the idea of the continent boxes (cultural boxes) - and I had even bought a set of stackable drawers to use for just such purpose, before I went to AMI Primary Montessori training. We could still use them as continent/cultural boxes, but I never really found the need for them in my household. Instead I re-purposed them to hold Legoboy's small toys: small animals, train tracks, cars, small scenery pieces, etc. He still uses them, but now has them reorganized according to his own (internalized, elementary-level, crazy-from-the-outside) organization. Ultimately, I went with what I received in Montessori training. Folders. The continent/cultural folders spark discussion, they promote interest... and then we can pull out the objects we have around the environment which the child is surrounded by for further discussion and experiences: books in the reading area, artifacts used as decoration around the environment (also used for polishing, dusting, flower-arranging, etc.), games to play with friends and family, etc. The objects and experiences are throughout life, rather than kept together in one box. The child is surrounded by cultural objects rather than having them boxed up. The child can go into the environment and gather appropriate objects for this study. LATER UPDATE (just this paragraph) - these materials seem so SIMPLISTIC and many people have told me "no, the cultural/continent boxes are a much better idea because it is all 3-d; some pictures can be added there too." That is your choice. Here are some points to consider to ensure a full Montessori balance/experience: are you providing keys? so that your child can explore and have something to discover for his own self? do you still have some cultural objects around the environment that your child can discover and say, "Oh! this is the Eiffel Tower from France! We have a picture of this in our Europe culture folder!" And it is something they can polish, clean, draw, etc. thus part of the environment around the child. the continent/cultural folders are also intended to incite conversation and story-telling (these are extensions on the album page) I personally decided that this one material, the Montessori cultural folders, allowed me to provide ALL of the above, with fewer actual objects from the get-go --- we could explore culture and continents and countries without spending hours/days/weeks/months/years collecting objects before even getting started. We could get started with the images, then discover all the cultural items already around our home! For me, my time is precious and I chose not to spend it on deciding which continent box to place a polar bear in (polar bears are present in Asia, Europe and North America by the way - and I have photos of each kind of polar bear in their proper continent - so much easier to find pictures than objects - and cheaper ;) -- then we have a few polar bears around and we discuss what all continents they belong on). At the time I created these cultural folders, I was just coming off a $5/month Montessori materials budget (I upped the budget a bit for during the training course - I spent what was needed, but also strove to minimize expenses - I think with lamination (paid at the training center), folders, colors, pencils, colored paper (most of which I had on hand already but a few things I purchased), donated magazines, I MAYBE spent $4 on the entire set - if that. I also pooled resources with other trainees, which helped. Time: 4 hours, plus 1/2 hour gathering items, 1/2 hour cleaning up ----- 5 hours. (END UPDATE) Image traced on with a print-out of the continent or with the world puzzle map pieces Colored in. Displayed in an elevated rack The images inside the cultural continent folders contain a variety of images from that continent - mounted on appropriate colored paper or cardstock, with a brief description on the back. They are intended to spark conversation and questions - leading to further studies as the children get older. This work can start at age 3 after they have worked with the world puzzle map and we want to share information on each continent. There are animals represented, people from various cultures on that continent, photos of food and national dress, etc. Our images all came from National Geographic magazines, but cut-up books could be used, images printed from the internet, etc. The continent folders then sub-divide into a variety of topics (not photographed here) - these can be smaller packets or pouches, or even a book on the topic (that's what we did - just read books, watched videos, or had real-life experiences with the sub-topics). This work is found in the Spoken Language section of the AMI Language album. The continent folders photographed here I had made for training and then used them at home with Legoboy. I was marked down for them because I didn't use all lowercase letters (since these are for such young children - younger Montessori children will write in all lower-case to start, then move to capitals at age 5 and 6, without the use of sandpaper letters). Technically I could have left them unlabeled altogether and not been marked down at all. Disclaimer though: My son has a hard time "caring" about capital letters anymore (despite starting to write with capital block letters) - so I do not regret having this material available to him with proper capitalization. At least he KNOWS where the capital letters go. How was this particular set of cultural folders made? It is a set of file folders - 1 file folder for each continent (in this set) - I chose to keep the tabs all in one place, but could have alternated them (the original plan was that the sub-sets would have tabs in different locations, so the children re-sort them easily based on the tab location). I used packing tape to close up the sides; then covered it in color construction paper (wish I'd used cardstock because construction paper fades) just over the folds. Laminated the whole thing (had to slit the lamination to re-open the pouch). If I were to do it again, I think I would prefer to use contact paper - only because the contact paper could wrap around the sides more securely. Or use colored pocket folders (now that pink and white are more easily found than when I was in primary training) and laminate those for sturdiness. I always thought Legoboy would add to these picture sets in elementary - that was/is his typical thing. For some reason, he didn't; instead he delved into cultural studies, loves reading books and watching videos - he can talk to you about different things when he is interested - and he loves to learn about other cultures. But he has never sought to add to the images. Just when I think I have him pegged ;) Continent folders can be an alternate to the bulkier continent boxes - or can be an addition to them. I highly recommend having multi-cultural items around your home - not just in the boxes. Alternate what is out at various times so that items can rotate into the box and out to the environment. I personally prefer to have an image of someone using the chop-sticks, with a quick description on the back, have a conversation with my child - then he "discovers" we have chopsticks in the kitchen where they would actually be used (instead of as an artifact in the box) - perhaps because I conveniently left them where he would find them (hehe - that's called strewing - homeschool moms get good at that) - and then we pull up a YouTube video to show us how to USE them. It just feels more real to me. In the end, I see the benefit of both continent boxes and continent folders, and lean towards the cultural/continent folders as my "core" with the boxes as peripheral. Your mileage will vary ;) Links for additional information on continent/cultural folders: This continent folder set doesn't quite match what is in my own AMI albums: http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/Montessori_Extension_Lesson.html Downloadables of animal images - though still not quite the same description: http://www.montessorimaterials.org/geo.htm One sample of using pocket folders - hers gets to it but my training dictated colored background on the cards (could be an optional feature if you have coding somewhere else so the photos can be re-sorted to their proper folders): http://bellachampion.blogspot.com/2011/10/real-montessori-continent-folders.html This continent folder set looks really neat actually: http://montessori123.com/products/complete-set-of-images-for-all-continents And these cultural folders sound about right too: http://www.absorbentminds.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?page=search&SS=continents+folders&search.x=-328&search.y=-149&search=ACTION&PR=-1&TB=A
Six experienced teachers share how they teach their kids about the world with easy and effective Montessori Geography lessons and activities.
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
The Best Rainforest Printable Activities, Perfect for a rainforest theme unit study, kids activities & animal habitats, Rainforest Ecology, climate, Rainforest animals, layers of the rainforest printable, rainforest printable book, free printable rainforest worksheets, rainforest worksheets for kindergarten, printable rainforest animals
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Here are some South America continent activities using the Trillium Montessori 7 Continents A-Z Bundle. You can apply these activities to any continent.
Looking for ways to engage your students while teaching the continents and oceans? I've got you covered with games, songs, vidoes, and more!
Our literature-based learning often lends itself to discovering other places and cultures, which is one of many reasons we love this method! Learning about Italy, Japan, and China have been some of our richest homeschool moments so far. Along with learning about other countries and their continents, we learn where those places are located on the globe. In order to help my girls learn the 7 continents, I created a set of printable Continents Cards that we use in a variety of ways. Note: This post was originally published in 2014. The Continents Cards and the post have been freshly
Montessori Animals and Continents Printables, Great Hands-on activities for learning about animals and continents. Animals continents worksheet, animals and their continents activities, Montessori animals of seven continents, animal continents activity sheets, what animal can be found on every continent, Montessori continents printables
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
How to Teach Geography with Continent Boxes, DIY Montessori Continent Boxes, A multi-sensory approach to learning with kids, Multi-Culture ideas with kids
Roundup with activities for a Montessori Africa continent box or Africa unit study for a variety of ages; activities for home or classroom
Ideas and resources for preparing Montessori continent boxes after children work with the Montessori continent map
