Thursday, May 14, 2009

Montessori Puzzle Maps

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!


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8 comments :

  1. 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!

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  2. Koko'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??

    We should get together... oh, hmmmm... maybe it's a little far. LOL.

    btw, is it a new or a used stand? Congratulations!

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  3. WOW< you sure are blessed! That is awesome!

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  4. Oh, good for you for getting those! We use ours all the time--they are so versatile.

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  5. These are so fun, looks likeyour cuies are doing well with them! We love geography even more because of our puzzle maps!

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  6. You 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".

    As 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.

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  7. Thanks :) and I *will* post about making the missing pieces and replacing the knobs.

    When 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.

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