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January 12, 2016

DIY Montessori Flag Pin Map

The 12 Months of Montessori series is back for another year! This month's theme is culture and I'm happy to be sharing a project that I've been working hard on for many months -- my DIY Montessori Flag Pin Maps. These maps seamlessly combine culture, and Henry's favorite subject geography. 

A DIY Montessori flag pin map is a great way to explore both geography and cultures with children.

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I'm not going to lie to you, this project has been one of the most time consuming DIYs that I have undertake recently. While I'm super happy with the outcome, I want to let you know right away that it is a bit tedious.

A DIY Montessori flag pin map is a great way to explore both geography and cultures with children.

To make these maps, you'll first need to gather supplies. You'll need:
  • Cork -- smaller sheets for the smaller continents, larger sheets for the bigger ones
  • Tracing paper 
  • Wall Map -- this is something I recommend any homeschool classroom or Montessori house have anyway! 
  • Permanent Markers
  • Scissors 
  • Tape 
The first step is to hang the wall map. Then, you will need to tape the tracing paper over the continent that you are working on. Carefully trace the continent and all the countries, and remove the tracing paper. See Picture Here


Next, you need to cut the tracing paper around the outside of the continent leaving all the countries intact. Once that is complete, you can use the marker to trace around the continent on to the cork board. Once the outside of the continent is completed, you have to get to work on all of the countries. Each country must be carefully cut out, placed on the cork and traced. 


I suggest starting with the largest outside countries first and moving inward. This was the most time consuming part of the project. See Picture Here Once the continents were complete, I retraced every thing one more time with the permanent marker to get clean, dark lines. 

A DIY Montessori flag pin map is a great way to explore both geography and cultures with children.

Once the continent is complete, you need to make the flags. I purchased the flag images from Montessori Print Shop so that I would get accurate, high quality images. To make the flags, I cut out each flag, glued them shut then laminated. Once laminated, I cut out each flag again and taped a T-pin to the back. This was also very time consuming. 


At this point, I'm only done with three of the continents. But, despite how laborious the project has been, I'm happy I've under taken it! Henry loves these maps and talking about specific countries. I foresee lots of country studies in our future! 


In order for Henry to complete the work, we use the wall map for him to check where the pins go. I know I could make a control map for him, but at this point the wall map gets him up and moving (which is so important for him) and it also lets him exercise his love of finding words (the name of each country is clearly written on the back of each flag and on the map). 


Some of these continents are quite the undertaking for Henry. He is so proud when he completes them! It just amazes me the concentration and joy that Montessori materials illicit. It's a wonderful thing to watch, especially when your child is so engaged! 


Is your child interested in other cultures? Have you undertaken a time-consuming DIY?! 

12 Months of Montessori 

This post was brought to you as part of the 12 Months of Montessori series! This month's topic is culture. Make sure to visit these wonderful bloggers for Montessori ideas and activities on studying other cultures! 





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Comments

Unknown
Unknown said…
There's just something about pins that attract kids, isn't there? ;) We love our pin maps too. We recently used ours to pin pictures of fruits from flyers to learn about where our fruits come from! Pin maps are sooooo versatile!
Unknown
Unknown said…
How adorable! I love the DIY approach and how light and bright your environment is! :D
Bess Wuertz
Bess Wuertz said…
This is a great idea for creating a simple pin map. I love it! Thanks for sharing.
Every Star Is Different
What a great idea! I've always loved this work, but never attempted to do it. Your DIY version looks fabulous!
Every Star Is Different
What a great idea! I've always loved this work, but never attempted to do it. Your DIY version looks fabulous!
Jae
Jae said…
We love geography and this cork board pin maps are amazing! I am so tempted to copy it! Amazing work Mama!
Chelsea
Chelsea said…
Great DIY! Have you tried graphite paper before? I think it would make the tracing part much simpler for you. When you trace with graphite paper it will leave the image behind so you wouldn't need to do all of the cutting to get an accurate image. http://www.michaels.com/mona-lisa-graphite-paper/M10065586.html
Unknown
Unknown said…
This is so wonderful! What a great idea. I love how you made it a DIY.
Mama's Happy Hive
This looks like a wonderful DIY pin map project! Maybe it would be more doable over time, by doing one continent at a time along with a unit study on that continent. You have done a beautiful job!
Unknown
Unknown said…
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Unknown
Unknown said…
Around what age would this be appropriate to introduce?