Montessori continent map work is a great way to help children understand more about our world and their place on it. It’s helpful for children to understand the earth and their place on it if they are going to help care for the earth.
Earth Day activities work especially well with a study of the earth. I already had a post with Montessori-Inspired Earth Day Activities. Today, I have links to some continent activities and DIY continent maps, presentation ideas, and extensions that would add to a study of the earth in preparation for Earth Day (or any time).
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Ideally, you would introduce the Montessori land and water globe and Montessori continents globe (see DIY globes post) before the mapwork. In a homeschool, you might not have those globes available. You could also start with the Montessori continent map work. The Montessori world (continent) map is an important part of the Montessori geography curriculum.
Although there are beautiful continent map materials available for purchase, many teachers as well as homeschoolers prefer to make their own. Fortunately, there are some great DIY continent map tutorials available online.
Making a Continent Map
Felt Continents Map (Photo from United Montessori Association)
The Felt Continents Map in the photo is from United Montessori Association. This activity is a DIY version of the Montessori continent map. It can be made with wool felt and doesn’t require carpentry skills. It could be mounted on a wooden board. Foam board would work well also.
Montessori Continents Map (Photo from Imagine Our Life)
Imagine Our Life has free patterns and downloads for making a continents wall map and quietbook.
Continent Map Work (Photo from The Homeschool Den)
The Homeschool Den has a free printable world map.
World Hemispheres – Maps and Masters from Montessori Print Shop
Montessori Print Shop (go to Montessori Print Shop and search for “world”) has a number of inexpensive and attractive materials for learning about the world. Montessori Print Shop also has a free printable of Globe, Continent & Ocean Labels.
Continent Map Labeling Tray
For this continent map and labels, I used the Free Montessori world map from The Homeschool Den. I used the Globe, Continent, and Ocean Labels and labels from the World Continents – Pin Map Flags and Maps from Montessori Print Shop. I reduced the size of the Montessori Print Shop labels to fit better on the world map from The Homeschool Den. I also like the size of the mini labels as a nice practical-life component to the activity.
Montessori Print Shop has a number of labels ranging from color-coded labels to plain labels with words only. I used the labels with color-coded pictures of the continents and color-coded labels for the continents and oceans. That way, even a 3 year old could match the continent images, and a non-reader who could match letters/words could match the color-coded continent and ocean labels.
Inexpensive World Map
If you’d like an inexpensive alternative to the Montessori continents map, check out the Teach My Continents and Animals on Amazon. It isn’t wood, but it uses the Montessori colors for continents and has a 30-piece puzzle, animal cards, and a board book for a super-reasonable price.
Instructions for Introducing the Continents
If you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive a free copy of the wonderful Montessori geography album from Karen Tyler at KHT Montessori. The 177-page geography album gives detailed directions for using the Montessori world map along with the entire Montessori geography curriculum for ages 2½-early elementary.
Montessori Album has simple instructions for using the world map.
Wikisori has some basic instructions for introducing the names of the continents using a continents globe.
My Montessori Works has presentations along with ideas for making a felt map and pin punch map, using a continents map:
More Extensions of the Continent Map Work
A popular Montessori work is to punch out the continent shapes with a tool like Montessori Services’ wood handled puncher.
Crayola has a free map of the world coloring page.
Carrots Are Orange has continent coloring work.
Another extension would be to add animals of the continents to the felt continents map as in this photo by Amy Kuhl Cox.
I have a post with an easy-to-prepare animals of the continents activity.
I have another post for extending the continents and animals work.
You’ll find lots of ideas for Montessori continent box work in my roundup post.
I also have a roundup of creative ides for Montessori continent boxes from around the world.
Does your child have a favorite activity to help learn about the earth?
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Hi Deb! Thanks for this post! I am new to Montessori (only studying it for about a year and sometimes feel so overwhelmed with all the information. I have a 3 year old and 1 year old and am just now feeling like I’m getting a grasp on teaching them about language/writing and math, but geography is something that I haven’t really delved into. Do you have any tips on where to start and how a normal progression should look like?
Hi Adrianne! If you sign up for my free weekly newsletter, you’ll get the entire 177-page geography album from KHT Montessori. It’ll give you a wonderful progression to follow! 🙂 Deb
Where can I find the maps used in the felt maps as the links are no longer working
Hi Lorraine! The blog at United Montessori Association had been removed, but they recently added the continent map back in. I added the new link. You’ll find lots of free printables and information for the continent map that’s at Imagine Our Life. 🙂 Deb
I love this! I am featuring it as one of my favorites this week in the Hearts for Home Blog Hop. 🙂 what you would suggest as Montessori-like activities for older children? Thanks so much, Lisa
Teaching geography to my kids is on my to do list, and when I get to it (could be a year from now!!) I’m going to love going to my Pinterest board and visiting all your resources. Thanks so much for sharing at After School!
What a fantastic idea 🙂 Love the felt map! We tend to always create salt dough maps for the larger projects but now you have me thinking about ways to bring in some felt usage while learning about landforms with my second grader this school year 🙂 Thank you for linking up and sharing this week on the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop!
We had a lot of fun doing salt dough maps. The kids liked making the landforms built into the 3D maps, and then once they dried they would run their fingers over mountain ranges and the coast lines. We learned so much about the geography of the places we did! http://kidworldcitizen.org/2012/01/29/3d-salt-dough-maps/
I just adore the felt continent map! Great idea and thanks for the links too!
Kerri
Thanks, Kerri! I love that there are such great DIY alternatives to the wooden Montessori world map!
I really love this idea! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Thanks for your comment, Karyn! I love that there are a number of great, inexpensive ways to introduce the Montessori continent map! 🙂
Ooh, I really like this! I made a felt continent map, but mine was copied from a 2D rectangular map. I really like how you put your continents on circles that represent the actual shape of the world much better.
Thanks, Maryanne! I can’t take credit for the map. The photo is from an activity at United Montessori Association, and that’s based on the traditional wooden Montessori world map (which uses the two hemispheres to show the continents). But it is a great way to show the continents, isn’t it?!
What a wonderfully sensorial activity this is!
Felt boards for geography activities can be made from old Monopoly boards as well. I pick them up at thrift stores and couple the tiny houses with land forms activities. Another favorite of the children is to lay out felt, vinyl or fabric continents and follow verbal directions. For example: Put two red houses on the peninsula, Put three blue houses on the cape…etc. This helps to strengthen a child’s understanding of land forms through repetition and play and opens their minds to creating their own environments as they prepare for the more advanced Imaginary Island activities!
What great ideas, Mary! Thanks so much for sharing them! 🙂
this is way cool!! sharing!
Thanks so much! 🙂
I love this felt set…I would so buy it if it were available for sale. I’m intimidated by the project though! I wonder if I could get my coop moms together to sit and make these as a group. Working on projects like these with other moms would be so much fun!
Thanks for your comment, Janeen! That’s such a great idea for moms to work together as a group! If you feel intimidated by the idea from UMA, check out the link from Polestar Montessori. Shelley from EvenAndy used that one to make a continent map from cardboard, construction paper, and colored pencils. Also check out Mary Vales’ great ideas in the comment below!
With all your materials from Montessori Print Shop, you must be in material-making heaven right now! 🙂
Would you link this post to my Love of Learning about geography in my home page?
Thanks, Palmy! That’s a great post! I’ll link to it here for now: http://laproffa.blogspot.com/2011/03/love-of-learning-geography-and.html. I’m going to be writing a post sometime on studying individual continents, and that’ll be an even better place to put your link. That’s my next step of geography studies! 🙂
This is such a great idea! I am going to introduce continents to my 2 year old week:) He loves learning new things and this would be a perfect activity for Earth Day week.
Thanks for your commennt, Shelley! That’s great to hear! Have fun! 🙂