How to Make a Pin Map of Europe

We are heading off to Europe in our world music class this week and to get ready for that, I made a pin map of Europe.  I'll explain how I made mine in case someone else finds it useful.

Step 1: I printed off a blank map of Europe from freeusandworldmaps.com.  I also printed off the labeled Europe map from that same website as a control. I laminated these two maps.

Step 2: I cut out a piece of plastic for the base (so the pins don't go through all of the foam), 4 pieces of foam and placed the laminated map on the top. I used the sticky side of the foam to hold the plastic base and the map in place.

Step 3:  I cut out a piece of contact paper so that it was about an inch and a half wider than my foam/map pile.

Step 4: I put the contact paper across the bottom and under the laminated map on top.

Step 5: I used clear packing tape (which I find more durable and stronger than the contact paper) and place about a half-inch of tape across the map's borders and wrapped it around to the back.

Step 6: My laminator broke on its way across the ocean, so I used an iron (heated up and then cooled) to quickly move down the laminating sheets and seal them. This is not as good as a laminating machine, but will do for now until I replace my old one.

European country flag and labels: I used the smaller version of the flags of Europe free to download at Montessori Materials

 Step 7: I cut out the flag/labels and then put a push pin through the left hand side.  Then I used packing tape and covered both the front, the pin and the back of the flag.

Step 8: I trimmed the tape around the edges.








 Here's the finished product once again:

I've also made pin maps of the continents, Asia and of the world biomes (scroll through the "geography" entries on the left sidebar if you're interested in seeing those).

You might be interested in this free Europe printable map, which is over at my new location homeschoolden.com.

Europe – Countries and Flag Maps Free Printable

 See you again soon over at homeschoolden.com! Be sure to visit our store for more of our packets - in science, history, math, spelling and more!! 

Happy Homeschooling!  ~Liesl