Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Design Your Own Country



We had a great day today with two little friends. I was inspired by this post by a friend of mine. The resources that I used (Montessori cards) can also be found at the bottom of her post. Thanks K! I wanted something that could be permanent and referred back to on occasion. I decided to have the students design a country. Using plastercine they shaped their country and then added various landforms as we discussed them. It was SO MUCH fun! This was one of the best projects we've done. I couldn't believe how well they did and each looked quite different. To take it further, the kids could draw a topographical map of their country.


For a base I used large Ziploc baggies and put a piece of thick cardboard and a piece of blue bristol board inside. The plastic bag allows the plastercine to easily be removed if need be. The blue acts as the water and the cardboard provides a good working surface.