I often find that the best, most successful Montessori learning activities created in our home happen organically and are led by my kids. These hands-on Montessori geography activities are a great example. These activities are easily implemented and repeatable in your home and classroom.
Montessori Geography Activities with Kids
Continent Animal Match
One of my favorite new books is Montessori: Map Work
. The pages are full of texture and color that draws children into the content. There are animals on each continent’s colorfully illustrated page so I grabbed the globe and our animal figurines.
The activity is simple. You have your book and your figurines. Invite the children to read and explore the book. After we read the book, we sang the Continents song to review the geography. Place a basket of animals onto the children’s workspace. I can almost guarantee that the children will begin to match the animals to their respective continent. If not, demonstrate for them. Then pull the globe, or a map, out to locate the continent on the globe.
Related Read: 5 Ways to Be More Global with Your Children
Country Currency Match
Materials required for this activity are simple but can be tricky to find foreign currency. Luckily between me and my husband we had collected ample supply over the years. My sons and I took a close look at the currency. We talked about the icons and the landmarks. Then we located the country on our globe.
Currency Matching Game
This geography activity is perfect for the younger crowd. We have many duplicate foreign bills and coins. My 3.5 year old began to match and sort them before I could even suggest it. This activity also presents another opportunity to examine the currency to learn icons and landmarks of countries from around the world. I was also to introduce the concept of foreign exchange to my sons. The idea that one currency’s value differs from another currency’s value invited many questions. The topic is quite abstract for them but we’ll keep at it!
