Holiday Giveaway 3: Wooden Continent Map
*********************This giveaway is now closed.*******************
Welcome to the third in a series of four giveaways from me and Alison’s Montessori!
This week, the prize is a $25 gift certificate from Montessori for Everyone and a wooden puzzle map of the world from Alison’s:
In light of the world map prize, to enter please share one thing you do to help children learn about other countries and customs.
For example, my children love coins from other countries so we ask friends and family to send us coins that they get when they travel. Then we look them up and find out where the coins are from, how much they are worth, and try to figure out any symbols or text that are on them. My daughter especially loves this activity.
The giveaway will close on Wednesday, December 23rd at midnight CST.
The prize ships to the US only – Puzzle Map will be mailed, gift certificate will be emailed. If you are outside the US but have friends or family here that could get the map to you, feel free to enter.
One entry per email address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday, December 24th. (I’ve been announcing on Fridays but since that’s Christmas Day, we’ll do it a day early).
Best of luck to everyone!
I went to our local stamp show at the convention center and we were able to thousands of stamps for only a few dollars. We are sorting them by continent and have learned a lot about native animals, leaders, architecture, etc.. We are all finding it fascinating.
I love your winter countdown. Exciting!
Becky
I have just done an continent swap with some of my blog readers, each of us represented a continent, I have only received 3 packs so far but they have been great, I am looking forward to starting more continent work next year.
I already have the map, so if i win i would like to donate it to one of the schools at
http://www.montessoriaroundtheworld.org
Hope you have a great holiday,
jo
my husband and i are from israel so our 2 sons visit there at least once if not twice a year. we also have a big map on the wall in the playrood and we talk about the different countries and bring books from the library.
We listen to music from around the world and use that as a means for talking about different places. My daughter is also fascinated by time differences around the world, so considering what time it is in a different part of the world at a given time and imagining what people there might be doin is always a great way to discover learning about new places.
It just so happens there is a great homeschooling group in this area and every month they host a “Fair” about a different country. Everyone brings one things about the country to the fair to share.
We have a very diverse group of homeschoolers in our Coop. During Coop, the parents or grandparents from other countries come and teach the children about the traditions and customes from their country of origin.
My plan when my children are older is to do a breakfast around the world series one week. So one morning will be a German breakfast with fresh rolls, cheeses and meats. Another morning will be Dutch and we’ll get some bread and butter and those sprinkles they put on their bread. Another morning will be Maltese (where my husband grew up) with pastizzi, another Japanese with rice & fish, and so on…when they get older I’ll come up with the full plan. We traveled a lot before we had our kids and I was always impressed with each culture’s breakfast choices.
my children and i love to cook. Each month we look up recipes from different countries and select 2 that we prepare together during the month. You learn a lot about a culture eating its food.
flag study! my sin loves researching flags and recreating them. often a lot of the country’s history can be learned through the study of their flag’s symbols and what is represented by it’s colors.
People love to share about vacations they’ve taken. I ask students and parents to bring pictures and mementos from a trip they’ve taken outside the country and share about different customs they have. While they are sharing we look on a world map and mark where they went.
My sons and I continue to collect and swap postcards with our various pen pals across the globe. We love it, and learn so much in the process. Thanks for the drawing….
I think that sending them to a multicultural and diverse school is one of the most important ways to educate your child.
I’d love to put together a continent swap or something, but for now, we just have maps up and atlases around and talk about them frequently. My husband loves to look up info online and give the kids an in-depth description of the country and show them pics. And then my son will find it on his globe!
well we enjoy our continent boxes. and i have the book material world that my kids really like to sit and look at as a family. they have so many questions while looking at that book.
Thanks for the great giveaway! This Christmas, we’ve been learning about holiday traditions from around the world. With each new tradition, we find its country of origin on the map. Each new day, a new tradition and country, advent calendar style. It’s been fun!
We have a small school, but huge diversity. We have children from Turkey, Hungary, China, India, Puerto Rico and Germany. This provides oodles of opportunities to have parents come and share their cultural traditions and customs. We try to keep our geography area well used and “dust free”!
On a small level we talk about the diversity in our group. We wear costumes, eat traditional meals, and listen to representative music. On a larger scale we spend entire weeks disussing a country of the children’s choice and I do the research and provide them with books, craft ideas, and free exploration on the country. They love it!
I have continent boxes with pictures of places of each continent, tiny animal figurines and other figurines from that continent. I also make a passport for each child and we do a sandpaper rubbing of the continent and put it in the passport along with sticker/stamps from the continent.
We are in the process of creating continent boxes with a variety of items (coins, postcards, pictures, etc), but right now we are primarily using books that show other small children from around the world. I especially enjoy sharing how alike we truly all are even if we celebrate different customs and different religions. My daughter really enjoys the different clothing at this stage.
I have taught our students our “Hello” song in 13 different languages. They really love it. We performed it at our Thanksgiving event. Teachers and parents were very impressed and the kids were so proud. It is a simple song: “Hello, how are you? (3 x’s), then “How are you, my friend?” If you speak a foreign language, could you please post the words in your language? Thank you!
My husband is from another country (New Zealand), so he naturally learns about slight differences between U.S. and NZ culture. I also have a craft book for Christmas crafts from around the world. I will do more as he ages (he’s 2 now).
We have friends who live in other countries with children our child’s age, and several times a year we send boxes of small items to each. Stamps, coins, photographs and holiday items specific to the different countries. Since my child is nearly 3, we have been looking at maps on the internet too.
I like to use blogs to show my children pictures of other countries. If you can find a blog of a missionary, that is a great way to show them pictures of local events and customs.
I have the families who travel and friends from around the world sent postcards of interest facts about their country or city. The children receive the postcards and then we look on the world map and locate the place. The children then add the postcard to the geography folder colored coordinated to match the continents.
We have a map of the world and push pins. We put in green for places we have been and blue for places where we know someone.
peace,
Catherine
My son is still very young. But I’ve started to collect materials for the continent boxes. Also, both me and my husband traveled for quite a bit, so we have many photos of different cultures. Thank you for your generosity!
We collect postcards
Whenever someone goes on a trip we ask for one.
With my kids both under 3, we mostly just hang out and learn from our friends who have diverse backgrounds. We have a best friend from India who has taught us a lot, and one from China, and another from France. Thank goodness they are teaching us to cook too
In the past I have asked my kids where their friends are from. Their classes have always been very diverse. We’ll look at the maps or online to find the area/country/state and then maybe talk about a tradition that is different than ours. Food is a great way too!
To help expose ourselves to the various continents and their cultures, we try to incorporate various medias, “experts” and experiences. Here are a few examples of ways we have experienced the world without leaving New England: watched the IMAX Antarctica documentary at the Boston Museum of Science, watched slideshows taken by a family member of All Saints Day in Guatemala, had a parent who grew up in Australia come in to speak to us about her homeland, made topographical maps of continents, baked food specific to the culture…. and so many more!
Wanting to enter giveaway.
We have learned alot about countries around the world by reading picture books, and especially “cinderella” stories from around the world. We did this and then would make a little flag of the country the story was from and them put the flag on the map.
we have a big map above their bed . our family is spread all over the world also our friends , so we point to places on the map , we try different cuisines , we read about other cultures and traditions , and i am trying to collect small artifact from different places .
Each month we study a different continent. For example this month is Europe. Each of my children choose one country from that continent. The older ones do reports on their countries. The younger ones learn a fact or two (I try to read a book about the country if I can). They each pick a food for their country as well. Then we choose a day to have “Geography day” and each child cooks or helps cook their dish. We enjoy a meal of different foods and listen to each of the kids share what they learned about their country (the eating helps keep the little ones busy). Because we are studying Europe in Dec. We added one more thing to this month. Each child also has to choose a Holiday tradition that country does. Then during “Christmas week” we’ll have our “Geography day” with food and traditions (should be fun). This is a fun and easy way to study Geography. Even the little ones at least remember the country they did.
My kids learn about countries in various ways. We watch films (we have been watching the Families of the World series), we read books on and from different cultures, and my daughter in particular (an 8 year old) actually loves to pick a country and research it. In addition, we have taken part in a couple of homeschool group studies, learning about different countries each week of the group study. We will also take part in a yearly homeschool Geography fair this year. There are SO many fun ways to learn.
I’m just getting ready to start some continent work – I bought some boxes from Michaels and have some nice printables to go inside. I just received a box full of goodies from my father, who was born in Europe and lived there for a little while before coming here as a child. I can’t wait to fill the boxes and get started!
We are a culturally diverse family to begin with. My husband is Costa Rican American and I am Canadian. We talk about countries a lot at home. My 2 yr old already knows her continents and we are participating in a postcard swap and hoping to get at least one card from each continent. My husband has a stamp collection with quite a few stamps from different countries. We look at her Atlas often and when we read about a State or country mentioned in a book I show it to her on the map. We read so many books and I try to read multicultural books as well.
We took a tour of a Montessori classroom five months ago and my daughter just LOVED this map.
With Christmas right around the corner, we’ve been talking with our son a lot about the different traditions from both sides of our family. My husband’s family is from Germany (2 generations ago, with a LOT of traditions handed down), and mine is from England and Ireland. It’s made for a lot of great discussions!
Our three year old son (Apollo) has a blanket that was handed down to him by his big brother. It has a map of the world where each country is in a different primary color. Apollo will lay it out on the floor and “drive” his cars from country to country and continent to continent all the while asking questions about each place. We talk about what animals live in each of the countries, and if it’s a place that we’ve either lived or visited, we’ll then talk a bit about our past experiences. Every time we talk about ‘Europe’, Apollo asks “my-up?” with a very confused look on his face. LOL, it’s a lot of fun!!!!
I have continent boxes. Inside are photos, 3 part cards, & a punching of the continent. The fun is the objects. They”ll range from animals to toys from that continent. During North America, I had replicas of colonial children’s toys. They were fun
We’re lucky enough to live in Chicago where we can sample cuisine and culture from around the world right in our neighbourhoods. That ready access to cultural diversity–along with the fun (and challenges) of a mixed race/cross-cultural marriage–has given our children a marvelous window on the world. With friends from Turkey, India, Israel, Scotland, China, Russia, and the Philippines, we’ve got our own (more functional) United Nations!
Thanks for the giveaway, and for all the hard work you put into your materials, Lori!
My kids subscribe to highlights Top Secret which each month features a different country. The book is full color with facts and cultural information and a lot of photos. The packet comes with a jigsaw puzzle and a mystery to solve.
We often eat at World Cuisines Stands for tasting different country’s menu. We find that country on the map&talk about the flag, popular things..
We are huge geography fans. We have a large Peterson’s map in our livingroom. I love it because we are constantly “going to the map.” Somehow it seems to frame anything we are doing when we can put a place to it. We read lots of folk tales and books about people from around the around. Recently, we read THE BREAD WINNER and know my son knows all about Afghanistan, including where it’s located on the map.
I have collected pictures of people from the different continents, mostly from old National Geographic magazines, and glued them on cardstock to make Peoples of the World cards. On the back I print a few simple sentences about the picture. Then I laminate each card. Children can match the cards to the puzzle pieces from the continent map or to a paper image of the map. Or they can look at the pictures and talk about them, maybe group similar ones. Each card is like a separate story. Older children can read the back of the card after viewing the picture and can use the picture as a starting point for writing a story.
In our classrroom we study each continent. We just finished Asia.. We did a study of the camel and Ginger.. Made lots of items using ginger. Gingerbread houses, ginger ale, candied ginger. We try to replicate a piece of art from that continent. We made clay pots. Finally, the class made dinner for their parents and served them as well. Beef curry, rice, Armenian salad, naan, and kheer. I can’t wait till the next continent!
We have made all of our continent maps out of foam. I dare say we are in need of a better material. How lovely of you to have this giveaway! Thank you and Merry Christmas
In our home we started the continent boxes. Any time we have friends go out of the country we ask them to bring us money, post cards, some art item and/or news paper. My Mom just got back from China and brought us an assortment of items. I also really enjoy talking to the kids about how other children live in other countries, where they go to school, how they get there, how they dress to go to school, games they play, etc. It is very interesting to them and me to find out this information.
I bought a great game online called “Cathedral World,” which contains about 20 or so miniature replicas of famous world landmarks. When the children use the puzzle maps, they can place the landmarks on the appropriate countries! Adults love to do this too, I’ve noticed.
Multiculturalism is so important in every home and classroom! I teach a world culture and dance class to the primary and elementary aged students at my school. Activities in that class have included learning African dance and drumming, kabuki inspired dance and make-up, partner salsa dancing and irish folk dancing. Each week we focus on one country and look at pictures, listen to/play music from that country and learn a traditional dance.
I like to share a variety of cultural items: clothing, pictures, toys from a particular country. I also invote parents in to share items, pictures from their travels.
Ooo, would love the map to give as a gift to a friend of mine who’s classroom is ill-equipped! Thank you for your fantastic giveaways!
Oops, posted before I could talk about sharing culture with children. As a 3-6 teacher we have many food tastings, we listen to multi-cultural music every day, I invite parents into the classroom to share their cultures and customs. We learn dances and learn about the different houses and foods in other countries. The children love to imagine themselves in someon shoes!
My children love languages, so we are constantly translating words into other languages. We also look at maps to find countries whenever we hear any mention of a foriegn location.
We spent several time learning about holiday traditions from around the world. The children primarily use books, maps, and our globe to find the locations of places which we discuss. We are also in the process of creating continent boxes.
We learn about other countries through family ties and family travels. We have quite a mix of cultural heritages, so we “personalize” different countries through association with various family members. My brother also does a lot of travel and brings back money and toys for the kids.
This year at our school we introduced two new members of our class. Their names are Oliver & Gertie. They are German teddy bears that sit on our Geography shelf in a suitcase (when they are here.) They travel with the children on trips out side of Colorado (because that is where we all live now). When they return the families and the children put together a few scrapbook pages that we add to “Oliver & Company” travel scrap book. The children love seeing the pictures of each other in new places. So far this year they have been to Mexico, The Bahamas, & Poland.
We have lived internationally for many years and make a point of getting to really know the surrounding countries. So far we have only lived in North America and Europe but we are moving to Asia in February and planning a visit to Australia from there.
We have continent boxes similar to those recommended on your website and have been very blessed by gifts from friends all over the world to fill the boxes. They also contain currencies gathered from our travels and those of family and friends.
As a former Peace Corps volunteer, I have collected a item of children’s clothing from all the countries I’ve lived in/visited. They are compact, easy to pack, and easy to store. There are so many things to talk about and observe about items of clothing: hot/cold climate, texture, fabric, design, etc.