Montessori-Inspired Geography

Pinky (4.4 years old) is getting more interested about the world around her. She has been doing some works at her school like Pin pocking the continents. However, at home we love to learn different things. That’s our Mommy-daughter time and we LOVE IT!!

We started learning about the Compass. Daddy and Pinky bought me this beautiful compass as a birthday gift a while ago (Pinky thought I would need it…lol).

We talked about how and why we use the compass.

For activities like this,  is my goal to keep it simple for my daughter introducing just the concept or new vocabulary. I got the beautiful printable at Montessori Print Shop, talked about the cardinal directions and colored the compass rose. From the MPS free printable we just used the ones with the basic cardinal directions (N,S,E,W): one with the whole word and the other just with the initials.

Then, we found the compass rose on a real map and played a game: where is this country in relation to the USA (like Puerto Rico is East, Canada is North, etc.)

Our last activity was a treasure hunt (playtime is our way to make sure that she understood the concept plus that’s the best part!). We made our own maps simulating Egyptian hieroglyphics from our current unit Africa. She held the compass and the map and direct us toward the treasure: homemade Gold.

There are many resources for geography around the web and Pinterest is such a great help; however it can be overwhelmed when you are just after schooling. I am trying to fulfill Pinky’s interest by introducing the concept with an easy explanation (mostly short Montessori-inspired activities) followed by lots of dramatic playtime. We just let our imagination and creativity to flow at the moment and, so far, we LOVE IT! Zero stress!!!.

Here is a post from To the lesson with amazing and easy activities to try.

How do you approach Geography with a preschooler?

 

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