Another 'Africa' Lesson: Sand Map

Here is an activity the children were enjoying prior to this week's vacation:

I happened to have a container of green craft sand and wanted to use it while our class is still interested in learning about Africa.  For any readers who may not know, green is the color of Africa on the Montessori globe.  For this reason, many of the items in our Practical Life lessons are green to correspond with the colored Montessori globe and the continent of Africa.  I decided to put together the following lesson as I know my students will enjoy the opportunity to work with glue in a novel way while identifying Africa on the globe and map.

The materials on the art shelf:  White papers with the shape of Africa; green tray with pencil, brush, jar with glue, flip-top jar filled with green sand; white tray.

Once the child brings the materials to a table, he/she writes their  name on the back of the paper.  Next, the brush is used to apply a layer of glue to the inside of the shape of Africa.

I like this jar for the sand because of the small spoon which can be used to scoop the sand and place on the the glue….

…like so.  When the sand is applied, the excess is shaken off  on the tray.

Africa sand map.