I'm not sure if I've ever posted about my Montessori map puzzles! After my unimpressive attempts to make my own map materials I made contact with some Montessori schools & was very kindly offered an old set from a school (on the other side of the country :). They were actually unsure about giving them to me because of the condition they were in; with pieces & knobs missing & broken. But I was overjoyed and completely up for the challenge of bringing them back to life.They're not perfect now (though I was thrilled to realise that they're Nienhuis ones!) but I'm giving them lots of love, cleaning them up, repainting & replacing the knobs and making new pieces when needed (originally with foam-board but I made some clay ones yesterday which might work really well) & yesterday I was able to present the first one: The Continents World Map Puzzle. Yippee!
The Hemisphere Orange activity was a pre-curser to presenting the map, and here the boys are colouring in their own maps & using push-pins to trace around the Hemispheres.
During school-time I showed Lovely an extension using a control sheet that I had created (tracing the puzzle pieces and dinner plate for the hemispheres ;) and then we did a few 3-part lessons (3 continents at a time). So cool!
That's wonderful! I also contacted a a local store and they are going to give me a map stand! But it's even cooler to get the actual maps!
ReplyDeleteKoko's mama - that's awesome news about the map stand - I'm still trying to work out what the hell to do with my maps now! Does anyone have any suggestions for storing them accessibly without a stand??
ReplyDeleteWe should get together... oh, hmmmm... maybe it's a little far. LOL.
btw, is it a new or a used stand? Congratulations!
WOW< you sure are blessed! That is awesome!
ReplyDeletegood work mama :)
ReplyDeleteOh, good for you for getting those! We use ours all the time--they are so versatile.
ReplyDeleteThese are so fun, looks likeyour cuies are doing well with them! We love geography even more because of our puzzle maps!
ReplyDeleteYou MUST post on how you re-made the pieces and fixed the knobs. I am constantly gluing knobs and they still fall out! I also have a lot of missing pieces in asia and africa that I'd love to "make".
ReplyDeleteAs for a map stand, you can use drying racks that are usually used in art classrooms. You'll just have to check the dimensions to make sure the maps fit.
Thanks :) and I *will* post about making the missing pieces and replacing the knobs.
ReplyDeleteWhen I visited the Montessori school on the weekend I was really surprised to see that they had missing pieces too! I think that's kind of what inspired me to make my own & do what I could do with the motto "it doesn't have to be perfect".
Before that, I had thought that maybe a local woodwork shop might be able to help make them but couldn't really justify what it might cost to do that.