Continent Studies - Africa Part 1

AFRICA ACTIVITIES 1ST INSTALLMENT

It has been all hands on deck these past two weeks since we have had our school suspended for COVID-19.  Since that time I have been working with many other Montessorians across the globe to get things into the hands of educators and parents.  I have been wanting to get back to blogging with regularity for some time now but have had other very pressing and difficult circumstances in my family's life to take care of first.  I am so glad things had gotten to a good place before all this happened.  I am also so grateful I have this platform already in place to make an impact for my own students as well as for so many others.  I wish to thank my readers for the outpouring of love and kindness at this time and in the past.  I want to be one of the helpers.  Thank you also for being one of the helpers.

We are gearing up for our Africa studies in Sequoias Class and I've been knee deep in creating new materials that are friendly to not only the classroom but for home as well.  In this post I will endeavor to share what I have made and a few other things I absolutely love.

Continent Globe

Continent Puzzle Map

Setting the Stage

Whenever we are introducing a new continent for study I will always take the Continent Globe and Continent Puzzle Map together during a Line Time.  We will sing the Continent Song together while pointing to the continents on the Continent Globe first and then again using the Continent Puzzle Map.  The WHY behind doing this is simply - the younger the child the more often they need to see that these things mean the same thing.  With the continued one-to-one correspondence practice more children will pick it up.

Every time we begin a new continent of study the children in our class renew their interest in coloring, cutting and pasting, and painting the continents.  

More advanced Early Childhood students will appreciate making their own Continent Globe.  This is also very beneficial for adults to create when a Continent Globe is not available.  If the child is really interested you can have them do the coloring with a little support.  The cuts make it difficult for Early Childhood students to know what color belongs where but it is such fun work.  I take whatever color they should be using and make a small mark in the spot to color.  This way they can be as independent as possible with the least amount of interference from adults.  Once colored they will need plenty of support in taping it together so it forms a globe.  

Continent Flat Map Work

The Colored Globe Cut Out

The assembled Globe

This following Coloring sheet is so helpful for this.  Whenever there is work that has a specific way to be done you should create a Control of Error.  That is one which is colored in the correct colors as an EXAMPLE. I always write EXAMPLE on the paper or else it may grow legs and go home with some little one.  Even then it may happen, but much less often. 

Continents of the World Coloring Sheet

This can also be used when a Continent Puzzle is not available.  You can print off two sets, color one set in the continent colors and the other with the blue ocean.  Then you can cut out the 

continent set and use them in place of the Continent Puzzle Map.

Assembling the Continent World Coloring Sheet to be used in place of a Puzzle Map

Continents Coloring Sheet Assembled as replacement for Puzzle Map

Introduction to Africa

Once we sing the Continent Song I will point to Africa and ask which continent this is.  Once that has been answered I will tell the children we will now begin our study of Africa.  There are two very good ways to introduce a continent.  The first is with ARTIFACTS and the second is through PICTURES.

ARTIFACTS

In Montessori Classrooms we sequence our work from most concrete to most abstract.  Artifacts are the most concrete representation of a continent.  I find artifacts from friends who have visited and brought things back for me, by visiting my local second hand shops, and sometimes online.  I try to get as many things second hand as possible.  Carvings, textiles, jewelry, money, art etc. all make great artifacts for students to explore.

Add in photo of artifacts

PHOTOS

Line Time Photos of a continent are large enough for everyone at the circle to see.  We want to give an overview of the continent in a short enough time to keep the interest of the entire group while whetting their interest for more.  That is easy to do with all the continents, but Africa is fabulous!

Introduction to Africa Line Time Cards

Once I have introduced our Continent it is time to give small group lessons for these very cool works.

AFRICA PLAY DOUGH MAP

This work is so lovely for the youngest students to use and they love it.  All works on a Montessori shelf should have an indirect purpose.  This work with play dough and the fitting into the small spaces of the map develop both the gross and fine motor control of the child.

Africa Play Dough Map

AFRICA TEAR MAP

This work helps the child with the fine motor control as they tear green paper strips into pieces small enough to be glued onto the paper.  The older the child the better they will be with the fineness of their tears.  It is a great thing to challenge your older and more advanced students to stay as much in the lines as possible.  This also develops hand-eye coordination.  I have included a page of green in case there is not access to a green sheet of paper.  It works best to cut the papers the child will use into a 1/4th of a sheet or even into strips 2 inches wide.

Africa Tear Map

AFRICAN MASKS ART

When presenting this work I will show a small group of children the African Mask cards and then invite them to color, watercolor, paint, or use oil pastels to create a beautiful mask with the African Masks Coloring/Painting Pages. They are meant to be cut in half.  We keep a smattering of the masks on a tray for the children to choose from.

African Masks

African Masks Coloring/Art Pages

AFRICAN TEXTILES CARDS

Something the children seem to enjoy a lot is the bold patterns of many African textiles.  These cards could to be printed twice to make a matching set.

African Textile Cards

  They could also be traced to make clothing like you see here using the Clothing Cut Out Patterns

Clothing Cut Out Patterns

ANIMALS OF THE SAVANNAH DIORAMA
This new work has been fun to create.  It is best suited for more advanced students to do independently.  Younger students will love doing this with a little support.  Follow their needs and help only as much as they need.

African Savannah Diorama Animals

African Savannah Animals Diorama Completed

Keep a look out for Installment 2 of Africa Activities!

Stay Safe!  Stay Healthy!

Loves,

Cath

Volcano materials for Early Childhood

I was saying how many files I have that are not available on this blog and think it is about time to get some of them uploaded to share with everyone.  We have been studying plate tectonics in our Early Elementary class over the last few weeks and we are finally prepared to move onto volcanoes and their types.  I have files and suggested materials for both the Early Childhood and Early Elementary classroom.  My next post will deal with Elementary files and suggestions.

Volcanoes are so fun no matter what age the child.  It doesn't seem to get too boring to study every year from age 3 to 9 and even older.  To begin with it is great to show the children a video of an erupting volcano.  This is a good route to go simply because we cannot take the children to a live volcano unless you have the great opportunity to live in a place like Hawaii or Iceland where active volcanoes can be seen up close.  These are a couple of suggested videos from the web here and here.  After they have seen the video you can have a conversation about what they noticed about video.  This is a great time to show the children a volcano demonstration.  I have created several volcanoes from kits.  I've usually found one at Michaels and used my 40% off coupon.  There are several to choose from and here are some great choices with a link to Amazon:

Learning Resources Erupting Volcano Model

Smithsonian Micro Volcano

Create-Your-Own Volcano Kit by Lakeshore

4M Volcano Making Kit 

NSI Smithsonian Giant Volcano Kit

Shylling Volcano Kit

I simply use vinegar, a couple drops of orange food coloring and some baking soda to create the demonstration.  In order to give the children a hands-on experience in erupting their own volcano it would be best to choose something made of plaster or plastic.  The plastic volcano kits are the easiest to clean independently.  I actually love this volcano for the on the shelf independent work because of its small size and easy clean up.  When it is set up there is just enough baking soda and colored vinegar for one eruption.  Once finished, including the child has cleaned it up for the next person, they can put it on the replenish shelf for the assistant to add more colored vinegar and baking soda.

I add to a second basket these photo cards to give children a chance to see great pictures of lots of different kinds of volcanoes.  This is a great primer for the elementary grades where they will learn about the types of volcanoes.

Volcano Photo Cards

After the children have had plenty of experience erupting the volcano it is a great time to introduce the Volcano Nomenclature Cards.  Sometimes you will have someone who knows a lot about volcanoes in your group and other times you might not.  The ones who know so much can really enrich the conversation.  This is the Early Childhood set of nomenclature cards and the blackline master to go along with it.  Older children should ALWAYS write the words independently by looking at the booklet while the littlest ones could trace the words.  I make my control booklet from this blackline set as well.  I trace over the letters with a thin black Sharpie marker so that children could place their paper over the booklet and trace the letters if they wanted to.  I want my letters to look nice so the children learn the correct formation.

Early Childhood Volcano Nomenclature Cards

Early Childhood Volcano Blackline Masters

There are so many great books about volcanoes that are very appropriate for the Early Childhood classroom.  Here are a short list of these books but you can find many, many more:

This Magic Tree House book is a great one for your advanced readers

Oceania Mat for the Early Childhood Classroom

I am in love with this work.  Not only because it took a while to produce, but because I got to make it with my sweet son, Andon, who is battling Leukemia right now.  I want to express my thanks and love for all your support and kindnesses during our fight.  We are not done yet by any means.  He still has another 2 years and 10 months, at least, to go.

The Oceania mat laid out.  I forgot to take a picture of the mat in the bag.

The work on the tray.  The mat itself is kept in a bag that can hang on a wall or sit
behind the tray on the shelf.

I've been taking a sabbatical from school while Andon undergoes chemotherapy, but that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping very busy.  I have so many things I could post about, and I really want to post everything, but I don't have that kind of time right now.

Since Andon has come home he has been VERY interested in islands, and we have studied all kinds of them when he has felt well enough.  In fact his Make-A-Wish wish is to go to Aulani resort in Hawaii with his family.  He wants to see the island up close, swim with the dolphins, and learn to surf.  He has also had a real interest in Australia, so I thought it would be perfect to study Oceania.  I figured I do several things all at the same time, and get some work in for school as well.  We ordered the Elementary Biome work from Waseca Biomes, which will arrive on Wednesday (we are so EXCITED!!!).  While I've been waiting for that to arrive I set to work making something I have been meaning to make for over a year now.  The Early Childhood mat of Oceania.  Since Andon hasn't been exposed to this type of work he helped me to create it while also learning.  We spent some time learning about the animals, plants, biomes, industry etc. of Oceania and then we worked to create this mat.  He has learned a lot of things through this process, and has really enjoyed it.

The first order of business was to find a site where I could print a large-scale copy of Oceania.  I found that here.  I used the 4X4 setting, which used 16 sheets of paper.  I tried the 5X5 setting first, but thought it was too large.  I wanted to be certain that littler arms could reach the center of the mat without walking on it.

NOTE:  I think it is important that children be exposed to the Biomes before they start this work.  Waseca has a great curriculum that you can download for free.  It is, however, one of those life changing and mind expanding sites.  I LOVE their biome work, but am not such a fan of their rainbow boxes for language.  I DO, however, love their biome readers.

I traced Australia onto brown Duck Canvas twice.  This was to give stability and a control
of error you will see later.  I used some of the left over brown canvas to make a bag to hold the mat.

I turned the paper pattern backwards so that when I cut out the  fabric I could turn it the
right way and not have the tracing show.

In this mat I am teaching the child the biomes found in Australia mostly.  The other islands
won't have their biomes expressly taught since they are significantly smaller.  Sorry to all my kiwi
friends :).  I do talk about them in the presentation a little.  You can see the biome map I am
referencing above.  You can find it below.

I sketched out the biomes onto the paper pattern.

Then I cut them out.

I traced those lines onto the front of one of the canvas cut-outs of Australia. Once that
was finished I used a triple stitch and a light blue thread to sew the lines onto the top piece
of the cut-out.

The next step was to pin the two pieces of fabric together and sew them.

I used clear thread and a zig-zag stitch.

I cut a piece of blue Duck Canvas to 20X40 and placed Australia where I wanted it on the fabric.
I was certain to leave plenty of room for New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and some of the  smaller
islands of Oceania.  I traced the outline of Australia onto the front of the blue fabric.  I then used brown
thread to sew the outline onto the blue fabric.

I then cut the biomes out of their respective colors.  Again I used duck canvas and cut two
of each piece.  I traced the major rivers and Lake Eyre onto the top side of the biome fabric and
 sewed them in a darker blue thread with a triple stitch.  Once that was done I again sewed the pieces
together with clear thread and a zig-zag stitch.

I cut out a small Australia and sewed it onto this light blue fabric with
clear thread and a zig-zag stitch.  I then turned it into a drawstring bag.
  It holds items that go onto the mat.  Here you can see the stitch work on the biome fabric.

Next I made pieces for Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.  I used some tan
vinyl to do the other side in order to be neutral.  I cut two pieces of blue for each, sewed
the islands onto the top side with clear zig-zag.  The white paint dots
you see are for the placement of objects.

Using the sewn island pieces, I traced onto the blue mat and then sewed the
 outlines for them in blue thread with a triple stitch.  Some of these photos
were taken at night so they didn't turn out so well.

Once New Zealand and Papua New Guinea were made, I used the large scale
print-out as reference to trace more smaller islands onto the mat.
I used brown fabric paint to paint them onto the mat itself.  Tasmania was cut
out of the Duck and sewn directly to the mat.  Then I used double fold bias
tape in a dark brown to finish the mat.
The contrast of color is nice.

This shows the basic set up of the mat with just the brown fabrics.

Finally, all the fun stuff is added.  I am a big fan of using already made resources if I can.
The Down Under Toob had a lot of these things.  I also used the cycad palm
 from the Trees Toob, the coral, seahorse, diver, chest of gold and clown fish from the
Coral Reef Toob.  I used the apples and bananas from the Fruit Toob.  I used Super Sculpey
to create the Mountain ranges, Ayers Rock, the base of the Aboriginal man
(because he doesn't stand on his own), and the volcano.  I used a wooden disc and
painted it with dot painting.  I cut very thin blue rick-rack for the rivers,
and blue felt for Lake Eyre.  Each item is placed during a "story"
 told to the children.  I am working to find a tiny boomerang, cassowary,
echidna, kiwi bird, "diamond", "opal", sheep, Maori carving and Sydney Opera House.

The story goes something like this:

"This is Oceania.  Well, not all of it, but a lot of it.  There are many small islands not on this mat, but this mat has Australia (place it), Papua New Guinea (place it), and New Zealand (place it). Here is also Tasmania (point to it).  Up here at the top are several smaller islands (name some of them if you can).

"In Australia we can find several biomes (pull out the biomes control card).  The orange is desert (place the desert), the yellow is grasslands (place the grasslands including the small yellow piece), the light green are the temperate forests (place the temperate forests), and the dark green is the tropical forest (place the tropical forest)  We can find some rivers in Australia.  Down here we have the Darling River, the Lachlan River, and the Murray River (place the three rivers together)  Over on this side is the Murchison River (place it).  There are other rivers in Australia, but these are some of the largest.  Sometimes the rivers in Australia DRY UP!  Sort of in the middle of Australia we have some lakes.  I am just putting on Lake Eyre because it is the largest lake (place it).  On the eastern edge of Australia there is a range of mountains.  These mountains are called the Darling Range (place the three mountain ridges).  This curved set on the bottom is also know as the Australian Alps (point to the bottom ridge).  In the center of the desert is a very large rock formation called Ayers Rock. The Aboriginal people; the people who have lived here a very long time, call it Uluru (place it and the Aboriginal man) and it is very special to them.  In the desert there are gold mines (place it), and diamond mines (place it), and opal mines (place it).  Bananas and pineapples are grown in Australia because it is hot (place them).  The Aboriginal people create wonderful works of art called dot painting (place it).  We will be creating some of these ourselves.  Off the west coast of Australia people dive for pearls (place the diver)."

"Emus live almost ALL over Australia (place it), so do cockatoos (place it).  Frilled lizards and kangaroos live mostly in the hot deserts and in the grasslands (place it).  Dingos can be found a lot of different places in Australia, but they are finding less and less of them all the time (place it).  The taipan lives right along the upper coastal areas of Australia (place it).  The platypus lives on the western edge of Australia (place it).  Koalas have to live where they find eucalyptus trees, so they live on this western side of Australia (place it).  Wombats only live down here as you get to the southern tip of Australia.  They also live in Tasmania (place it).  Another animal that lives in Tasmania is called the Tasmanian Devil.  It is known for being very aggressive (place it).  Off the east coast of Australia we can find the Great Barrier Reef.  It is home to many kinds of Corals (place it), fish (place clown fish) and seahorses (place it).  There are many, many other kinds of animals that live in the coral reef, but we will learn about them when we study the coral reef.  In New Zealand they have many volcanoes (place it).  They grow apples and they herd many sheep (place them).  In Papua New Guinea and on the top of Australia we can find the Saltwater Crocodile (place it).  We can also find a kind of palm tree called a Cycad (place it).  Scientist believe that this type of palm tree has been around a very, very long time."

When you are finished with the presentation, carefully return all the items to the bag.  return the pieces to the tray.  Roll up the mat and put it in the mat bag.  Ask the child(ren, because by about 1 minute in you will have most of the class wanting to watch your presentation) if they would like a turn with this work.  When they say yes, you get to tell them that you will show them where to find it on the shelf so they will know where to put it back.  You then put the entire work away before allowing the child to use this work.  In this way you are consistently showing the child the importance of putting their work away in pristine condition for the next child to use.

The best thing about this work is that it has endless extensions.  Reading, writing, grammar, math!!