Sorting Animals by Continent!

Photo taken from, and property of Butterfly Montessori Blog

I came across this very cool piece of "Montessori Candy" and just had to pass it along! Check it out at Butterfly Montessori Blog. What a great idea for inclusion in Montessori continent studies! Thank you Natasa! I wonder if she could share some tips on making fabric continents? I'm wondering if you would just trace the continent map puzzle pieces on to felt and then enlarge it somehow? I don't know?! I'm not very crafty! I guess I'll just have to ask her on her blog! Don't forget to check out the rest of her blog! She has oodles and oodles of ideas to share with everyone and great pictures to accompany them too! I had seen her blog before, but it wasn't until just recent that I "discovered" the translator function she has included on the left hand side of her blog. I'll definitely be checking out her blog even more now that I've got help of the translator!

... After a little bit of thinking, I just got an idea! Maybe a variation of this activity could be to trace continent puzzle map pieces on to paper and then use a copier to enlarge the outline and print it on to colored card stock, glue on to a 8.5x11 sheet of white colored card-stock and laminate, or copy an enlarged outline on to an 8.5x11 sheet of white card- stock and just draw over the outline in the appropriate color with a marker and then laminate. You could place 7- 8.5x11 sheets on a tray with a basket of animals and/or laminated cards of animal photos (cards with corresponding outline color for each continent like Natasa has shown). You could even start with two continents on a tray, and one by one add a continent sheet and corresponding animals/cards until you have all 7 on a tray. This sounds like such a fun idea that the children would love!

If you're short on time, you might want to check out this alternative at
Montessori Print Shop: Animals of the Continents

Montessori Print shop also has some great individual cards of the animals and their corresponding continents if you want to make up your own activity: Animal Cards
We've purchased these for our co-op and really like them a lot!

By the way, I just found out that Jessica at "Garden of Francis", is selling felt world maps. Check out her page Here for more information and for questions on custom products.