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Here are some resources for: flags and European animals (I made some other continent animal cards a while back and they're already with the world felt map so I'll just keep them there)
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/geo.htm
Here is an outline map at the same site:
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/Geography/Europe.pdf
I found it as I was already printing this one to be used for the command cards and to draw/label rivers:
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/euoutl.htm
I haven't exactly decided how big I want to make the pin map or puzzle. I'm tempted to just save up and get a puzzle but it would have to be a cardboard one and they don't seem to have the countries cut the way I want. Of course, it would still be MUCH better than I could do. I never was pleased with my homemade continent puzzles. For South America I just made a magnetic puzzle (which they have used a LOT) but they can't use it for tracing/punching.
I just looked in my bookmarks and I had a note saying "Get Europe!" for this one:
http://www.montessoriconcepts.com/products.php?cat=Geography&PHPSESSID=d9b30649f404bbdbf9538d2261e87aee
This one is cardboard and 1/2 the price:
http://www.geographyzone.com/products/puzzles/continent-europe.htm
I saw this a few years ago at a McNally store and didn't get it (grr) because the cutout pieces weren't to my liking. So, we ended up with nothing all this time - should've gotten it, eh?
http://www.geotoystore.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=122
[If you have either of these I'd appreciate some feedback.]
I love this site and used it to print the template to make the world felt map forever ago. I don't know why I didn't use it to print my Europe outline map for the command cards when I was already planning on using it for the pin map - it would've saved me some time searching online. That happens when you are interrupted when you think you have a few minutes, right?
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps/print-europe-maps.html
When I made the horse pin maps I made each continent separate on a regular 8-1/2x11 paper size and it works fine because there aren't necessarily pins in every country. For the Europe flag/country pin map I think I'll make it double-size (2x2) so it can still fit in the shelf where I want it but will be big enough for the work. It's printing as I type so I'll see if it'll work...
Other Europe ideas:
*Rivers of Europe - I printed it off of Enchanted Learning and will put the answer one in the box of world felt map materials. They can use the blue pony beads to make the rivers. I need to make labels though - add it to the list! I'll put another copy of the answer one with blanks (they have the rivers drawn in) in the Europe Continent Box for them to label and glue in their culture notebooks.
*Mountain Ranges of Europe
What do you use to study Europe? For those using continent boxes, what do you have in your Europe box? What do your children like to do? What are some of their favorite materials? What are some of your favorite online resources related to Europe?
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What's Cookin'?
- Pear sauce (as opposed to apple sauce) made from some wonderfully ugly pears from the farmer's market. And no, I don't know what I'm doing :) but I'll do a quick search to confirm my thoughts of cooking it just like apple sauce. I canned the pears last time but in all honesty I'm too tired today to even think about it. That was my plan when I got these but pear sauce sounds much easier; especially if I can freeze some. Middle dd offered to peel and slice (yeah!) so that's helpful. I *should* make some bread, but again, too tired. Maybe later...
Update: I found a recipe even I can follow! We had 12 pears (because we ended up eating 3 at lunch). Uncooked they fit just right in my 2 qt pot. I wouldn't have thought of adding a bit of lemon juice. I saw that in a few recipes I read.
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/frugalfoodsrecipes/r/Pear_Sauce.htm
Enjoy!
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As far as our continents box for Europe, I have found some great items at Goodwill, consignment stores, Pier 1 Imports, and World Market.
ReplyDeleteAs far as what we have in our box, we have some perfume samples, stamps and coins from the different countries, some Christmas ornaments, some children's picture books in the different languages, a pair of wooden clogs, some small flags, some plastic animals, and some post cards.
Also found a neat bulletin board set that had children dressed in traditional clothing from each country.
One of the neatest things we purchased but you might be able to make on your own in from For Little Ones. It is a World Stamps Kit. Pauline Meert is a trained Montessorian and came up with this box. There are compartments for every continent except Antarctica, as they don't have regular postal mail.
She color coded the box compartments to go with the Montessori colors on the globe. She then color coded the backs of each stamp by attaching the actual stamp to a piece of colored card stock. She then laminated each piece. My hubby and I are trying to watch our expenses related to homeschooling, but we decided that this was a very worthwhile purchase. Pauline's store is on Etsy. It is called For Little Ones. The item itself is called World Stamps.
What is great about this work is that it is very versatile...Young ones can focus on sorting by color. For elementary, they can sort first by continent and then, by country.
Older ones can write imaginative stories about where these stamps have travelled from, etc.
One thing that you can get for free to add to your box is perfume samples, as long as you don't have children with allergies.
We went to a perfume store and they had tiny samples of perfume they were handing out...when I told them that I was so thrilled to get the samples, as I was adding them to our continents boxes. The clerk seemed very interested in what we were going to do with the samples. She went through what they had and found some from France, Norway, England, and Ireland.
What great ideas! Thanks for sharing. I just saw your other post about the perfumes. How interesting - I would never think of that. You could probably use for smelling bottles also.
ReplyDeleteYou reminded me that I have an oooold classroom bulletin board set that has children in traditional dress from around the World. I could sort those cutouts into the boxes. Who knows, it may be the same one you have.
I LOVE the stamp idea.
Thanks for your ideas and inspiration
Hi!
ReplyDeleteJust found you recently and added you to my reader. It is funny how many Montessori people are also Weston Priceish people. I love Kelly's blog too. You are a bit ahead of me on the WP stuff, and I am enjoying that part of your posts...the homeschooling too. I'm excited I can read about both of my passions at once!
Thanks so much for your comment. Maybe it's because in both Montessori and WP (or NT, which is the route I took to find WP info...via Kelly's blog) you are a bit outside of the box educationally and food-wise :). I have such a looong way to go in our food life, but I'm trying. If you only knew what I ate today you wouldn't say that I'm ahead of you, lol!
ReplyDelete