Monday 5 September 2011

Map and Continent Lesson For Toddler

How do you teach a toddler about the map? In our case it means stickers and singing.

This is our map with the puffy car stickers. ('Cars' is our room theme)


Tiger loves his World Map. No, he's not a genius. Thank goodness! I would be so stressed if he was. He can't point out the different countries to me.

The idea is simply 'visiting' a different country every week and he gets to put a sticker on the map ala Tweedlewink.



Basically, we will learn about the country's flag and I'll download a few powerpoint presentations from http://www.brillkids.com/ to expose Tiger to the country's language. Nothing too fancy or serious as we are just having fun.
I have been trying to teach him the continents for the longest time and it finally happened.

This is my cheapo version of The  Montessori Continent Map.

The colours of the cards corresponded to the map except for Australia :)

Materials:

1. Print continent map from Google image. Make it a cute A5 size for travel convenience.

2. Laminate.

3. I used the small continents flashcards from Tweedlewink for convenience. You make make them easily.

4. Place small velcro pieces on the map and Tweddlewink continent cards. (I couldn't find dot velcro, so i bought the strip velcro type with the sticky back and cut accordingly)

Note: The continent printout is based on the continent color palette of Montessori geography materials:
  • North America: orange
  • South America: pink
  • Afrika: green
  • Europe: red
  • Antartica: white
  • Asia: yellow
  • Australia: brown
Then I sing this song from Youtube as I place the cards. Trust me, if I can sing this, you can.


Tiger having fun with the map
 It's a hit! I mean the map, not my singing :)
We have songs for most of our activities since Tiger's so in love with music.


We are linking up with Tot School:


We are still in the midst of Letter G week. Head over to see what other toddlers have been up to!



9 comments:

Ella said...

Amazing! We didn't start our learning class yet seriously because now we are moving another country and have lots to buy and do! But we are going to start in a month and Countries are my favorite to do with! I have many ideas to learn countries! I can' t wait for that time! :(

Jessica, May I ask where did you get those beautiful alphabet above world map? I really like them :)

Jessica_littletiger said...

Hi Ella,

I love Geography too. Can't wait to do more lessons with Tiger as he grows :)

The alphabets are from Popular, I think you should be able to get it in most major bookstores.

Deb Chitwood said...

I love that you use the puffy car stickers with your world map - great for creativity and eye-hand coordination! You did a great job of creating your continents map (and I love using songs for learning, too)! I have some more continent map resources here: http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/04/18/activity-of-the-week-continent-map-work/.

Thanks so much for linking up with Montessori Monday. (If you could add the Montessori Monday button, that would be awesome!) I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page.

Jessica said...

Hi Deb

Thanks so much. You just made my day. It means a lot coming from someone as experienced as you :)

Will button my post the next round :)

Anonymous said...

Wow.. how did you do all the home items... i'm really very impressed.. as a working mum, how do you find time to deco and do those items... i hope i can do that too.. :)

May i know where did you get the map?

Welline

Jessica said...

HI Welline

I got the map in a local bookshop near my place. Couldn't find it in the major ones like Popular. Pm me your email and I'll send you the shop address (for safety reasons)

PS: If you used to work 36 hours without rest, doing this is a piece of cake and so much more rewarding :)

Thanks for reading.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jessica, i like your teaching! Do you teach your tiger chinese? Any DVDs or sytem to recommend for learning chinese. My kid is about same age as Tiger.. Right now,i have brillkid for English and Maths.. Is it good to invest on the chinese as well?

Thks!

Elsie

Jessica said...

Hi Elsie,

Thanks for liking :)

We do use Little Chinese and Tiger enjoys it more then Little Reader. I got it cause my written Chinese is horrible. He has learned body parts in both Chinese & english but we are bilingual. Can't say if it's due to Brillkids for sure

We also like the Odonata series. It's a Malaysian publication, like Peter and Jane series. There are some other Chinese books that I got from www.caterpillarhouse.com. that my MIL will read to him. I still think reading is the best way to teach language.
I've also heard of great things about Little Pim and Wink To Learn. I looked it up on Youtube and wasn't very impressed.

Brillkids is mainly a reading programme and again I must say that learning starts from the heart and we learn from our five senses. That's why we do lots of play and hands on stuff. I used DVDs (YBCR) and some Baby einstein when he was much younger and less interactive.

Of course they will learn no matter what medium you use but DVDs, Brillkids and e flashcards just lack the human touch & connection.

Hehe, sorry for the super long reply, dear. Hope it helps. Just pm me or leave a comment if you need further clarification, ok?

PK said...

Hi

This is good - www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOti8U_-BNM

They have songs for the whole world. Good for reading too. Also good for singing to sleep!

My boy is 21months - http://winstonking.blogspot.com/

Paul

our websites ... i always put links
www.mypashmina.co.uk www.therealrugcompany.co.uk www.hammockheaven.co.uk www.fpots.co.uk

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