Making Globes

One of the Montessori materials we do not have is a sandpaper globe or a globe that shows just the 7 continents in their "proper" Montessori colors. That's partly because we have a cute globe already (one that lights up and has various world animals on it). But for some reason we got a hankering to make our own globes.

What better way to learn where the oceans are located than to make our own globe?! We worked on it a bit every few days.

Paper mache is really easy to do -- the "glue" we use is 1 cup flour and 1 cup water (mixed vigorously). Then we add 4 cups of boiling hot water (and Mom mixes).  Let the mixture cool and then dip strips of paper into the mixture and spread smoothly.

We bought three big balls (for less than $3 each) from Target to use as our base.

Then we painted it all blue.

A few days later I painted the basic continents so that the kids knew where to place the glue and colored sand.

 

Although DD and LD know the song, it's now ED's turn to learn the 7 continent song (to the tune of "Frère Jacques"). This is how we sing the song:
   Europe, Asia    (Are you sleeping)
   A-fri-ca    (Are you sleeping)
   North America, South America (Brother John, Brother John)
   Then there is Antarctica (Morning bells are ringing)
   Don't forget Australia (Morning bells are ringing)
   7 continents, 7 continents (Ding, ding, dong, Ding, ding, dong)